Stellvia II: The Final Crisis
by BigFics2
Summary: 25 years have past since the final episode of the first series. Now the next generation of students arrive at the Stellvia II Foundation. But what they don't know is that a new threat looms closer, even more threating than the previous 4 crises combined.
1. Intro

Disclaimer: I do not own Stellvia. Geneon and Xebec do.

**STELLVIA II: THE FINAL CRISIS**

**Introduction**

Basically since the creator of Stellvia, Tatsuo Sato, canceled the Stellvia sequel "Stellvia II," I decided to make my own version of what it would have been.

**Story Outline:**

25 years have past since the last crisis threatened the Solar System. It is now the year 2384. The five Foundations that were destroyed during the Genesis Mission have since been rebuilt. Mankind, after facing and overcoming four different major crises, is now preparing to start exploring the galaxy. And a new generation of students will be ready to take on that role. Spurred on by the heroism and opportunity opened up by previous generations, they will strive to make humanity's future a bright one as they carry it to the stars.

In order to do this, for the past 20 years Humanity has been building a giant colony ship, about 5 times larger than a Foundation space station, to take the first group of many humans into space. "The Ark." Its mission is to take 10,000 humans into space to eventually colonize the first inhabitable planet they come across. The Mission is called "The Ark Mission;" in which the ship is named after. The ship is but the first of many more ships to come.

However a new danger, even more threatening than the other crises, looms near. And what exactly caused the cosmic fracture and the devastating waves will slowly be revealed. Can the new generation of students along with the old overcome this new threat? New ships, friends, and some unlikely allies will help in this endeavor.

Old heroes will be called upon again, new heroes will be made, lives will be lost, and Humanity will once again be united against the most dangerous threat the solar system has ever known.

**Main Characters**:

Hudson Bale

Age: 16

Background: He is brash, bold, hardheaded, stubborn, and the best pilot of all the new and upperclassmen, and even the teachers, and he knows it. He talks back to authority if they get in his way and isn't afraid to speak his mind and likes to do things his own way; which gets him into a lot of trouble with the teachers. He has a mean streak in him that noone wants to see, even himself and sometimes loses himself in his anger. But despite his hard attitude and rouge actions, he is a very kind person in heart. Deep down he knows what is best for everyone and thus sometimes acts like a snob without realizing it. However he knows when to back down when the time comes. He is loyal and very friendly to the few friends he does make and will do everything he can to protect them. He is smart, adapts quickly, and is also quite handsome and his loner attitude attracts many of the girls. The eldest son of Dr. Dennis Bale, the man who developed an improved version of the gravity drive systems for the Ora-avise spacecraft which doubled their speed and maneuverability (and size) leading to the development of the Katie Mark II's and the Bianca Mark II's. Literally raised with simulators he is bread to be a top pilot and even out did most of the best flight instructors on Earth by the time he was seven. He has a younger brother who is in flight school back on Earth and is also very good although not quite as good as he is. He also has two older sisters. One was married and has 3 kids but has since divorced and the other is unmarried. He has short brown hair with dark brown eyes. He has no roommate on the Stellvia II.

Rinna Atoyama

Age: 15

Background: The eldest Daughter of Kouta and Shima. Like her mother she is shy and reclusive. Despite being raised more by her grandmother and grandfather on Earth than by her parents due to their work for the Ark Mission, she still loves her parents dearly and knows they love her with all their heart. She has a five year old sister that she leaves behind on Earth. They are very close and keep in contact while she is on the station. Like her mother and father she is very smart and has exceptional piloting skills and is almost Hudson's equal. She has her mother's eyes and a hair style similar to hers but her face and hair color are more like her father Kouta's. She is also very emotionally affected by her surroundings much like her mother was. But she is also determined. Raised in the public eye due to her famous parents she's not as afraid about talking in public like her mother once was. Both her parents are working on "The Ark" which is being built around the orbit of Pluto near the Vision Shipyards so it's tough talking to her parents, but they do send her and her sister a video letter every week which she always looks forward too. She is room mates with her longtime best friend Rita.

Rita Takia

Age: 15

Background: The only daughter of Rinna and Pierre Takia. She is as hyper and cheerful as her mother and has the same great body and she knows how to flaunt it. A trait inherited from her father no doubt. She has spent most of her life on the Ultima along with her two little brothers but once spent four years living with Rinna and her family on Earth. They had become fast friends and soon the best of friends. They constantly sent video letters to each other for the next few years before both joining the Stellvia II. She has the same hair color as her father and a similar hairstyle to her mother's. She looks almost exactly like her mother. She, like Hudson, was raised with simulators and is one of the best pilots in the beginning class. She is loyal to her friends and has been known to put herself in danger to help them. She is roommates with Rinna.

Joseph Jones

Age: 15

Background: The older of the two Jones twins. Son of Joe and Akira Jones, he and his sister act very much like their father; with some small differences. Both are not very good academically like there father was but both are very good pilots. Joseph is a bit more laid back and takes what life dishes out with stride. He's also been known to be a bit of a trouble maker but he's never done anything serious. He makes friends fast but tends to annoy them at the same time. He has green hair and looks a lot like his mother. He is roommates with Ituko.

Joanne Jones

Age: 15

Background: The younger of the two Jones twins, she is the daughter of Joe and Akira Jones. Although she acts like her father most of the time, she is known to have a fiery temper like her mother does from time to time. It only happens when she get seriously pissed off. She does try hard to study but gets easily distracted and consequently her grades suffer. She is also very friendly, but don't get on her bad side. She is a good pilot and strives to better herself. She looks a bit like her mother but looks more like her father. She has long blue hair. She is roommates with Dianna.

Ituko Odawara

Age: 16

Background: Son of Arisa and Dai Odawara. He is about as cheerful has his mother but is also very calculative like his father. He likes to think things through first before starting a plan, despite his Arisaesque tendencies. Very friendly and helpful, he is normally the one to show both compassion and sternness in a difficult situation and tries to find the best solution to the situation. Whether it be him or someone else in that situation. His grades are good and his piloting skills are decent, but he's an engineer first and foremost. He has short blue hair with bright red highlights along the side of his head. He looks more like his mother. He is room mates with Joseph.

Dianna Machida

Age: 16

Background: The youngest adopted daughter of Yayoi Fugisawa and Ayaka Machida. Adopted at the age of three she and her older adopted sister have grown up under the care of two of the best pilots Stellvia has ever seen. As such she and her sister have become exceptional pilots themselves. Her sister is already apart of the Big Four and she hopes to be one of them too someday. Very loving and mother like she acts a lot like Yayoi. Although she doesn't wear glasses she has red hair made up into the hairstyle of her adopted mother Yayoi.

Motoko Machida

Age: 18

Background: The first of the Big Four and the older of the two adopted daughters of Yayoi Fuiisawa and Ayaka Machida. Although she lacks the superiority complex like Ayaka has, she does have the same stern and strict personality and doesn't take any crap from anyone. If she doesn't get something right the first time she methodically goes over everything she did wrong and tries again until she gets it right. This has transferred over to her piloting and is what got her to the Big Four. She admires Hudson because he has about the same personality as her. She has short purple hair.

Michel Austin:

Age: 18

Background: The only child of Kent and Nagemia Austin. His father Kent was killed in a test piloting accident shortly after his birth and it has worn on him for many years He has since gotten over most of it but it does come back to haunt him from time to time. Despite that he has inherited his father's excellent piloting skills which have earned him the same place has his father in the Big Four. And like his mother he has a love of literature, but doesn't go spouting random poems like his mother. His mother never remarried and lives in the Stellvia II as a teacher of English literature. His personality is about the same as his father's although he is a bit more reserved. He has blonde hair that is parted to one side. He eyes are his mother's but the rest is a carbon copy of his father.

Karl Shoujin

Age: 18

Background: The eldest of four sons of Ritsuo and one of the girls from Shima's class. Like his father he is reserved and only speaks either when spoken to, or has something very important to say. He also has practiced his father Ninja style and wears a mouth mask like his father did during his time as a student aboard the original Stellvia. His hair is a lighter bluish-green than his fathers.

Susie Hunter

Age: 18

Background: The newest member of the Big Four, but she has more than earned it. Her piloting skills exceeded many expectations. Upbeat and friendly she also seems to be romantically involved with Michel. Her family is good friends with the Kazamatsuris on the Ultima II so she knows Rita too. She grew up without a father since he left her mother shortly after finding out she was pregnant. This has caused her to have a slight distrust in men, and this tends to get between her relationship with Michel every so often. But she tries hard to get through it. She has long blonde hair and light blue eyes.

Leeann Shirogane

Age: 24

Background: The eldest daughter of Jinrai and Ren Shirogane. She is as cheerful and kind as her mother and is the head nurse's assistant aboard the Stellvia II, which happens to still be her mother. Her father is the Dean of the Stellvia II. She knows how to treat everything from a scratch to major surgery. She has inherited her mother's shapely body and her father's dark green hair.

**Old Characters: Mostly as secondary roles**

Shima Atoyama

Age: 42

Continued Background: Formally Shima Katase. After graduating from the Stellvia II with honors she went on to become one of the programming teachers aboard the Stellvia II. Shortly afterward she got married to Kouta and soon gave birth to Rinna and her little sister Tsubasa. Her teaching carrier was cut short when she was promoted to Captain and became co-captains with her husband Kouta of The Ark. The Ark is so large it needs two captains to run it. She helped design and build The Ark and is head of engineering and power regulation on The Ark. Given that she and Kouta would be spending long periods of time in the Vision Shipyards she and Kouta decided to send their daughters to live with Shima's parents back on Earth. She along with Kouta will be aboard The Ark when it embarks into the stars.

Kouta Atoyama

Age: 43

Continued Background: After graduating from the Stellvia II also with honors he went on to become the flight instructor of the Senior class. He married Shima and they had two daughters. Shortly afterward he was also promoted to captain and became the other co-captain of The Ark. Although he didn't help design and build it like his wife, his leadership skills and piloting skills were perfect for becoming the head captain of the ship. He and Shima both agreed to send their daughters to live with Shima's parents back on Earth.

Rinna Takia

Age: 39

Continued Background: Formally Rinna Kazumatsuri, became one of the youngest ever to graduate from Stellvia II. She started dating Pierre shortly afterward. She and Pierre moved to the Ultima II and eventually got married. Rinna went on to become the youngest dean of the Ultima II Academy. She had three children. Rita the oldest and only daughter at 15, Shin the oldest son at 12, and Yuichi the youngest son at 6. She managed to keep her good looks and sexily shaped body even though she's almost 40 and has given birth to 3 kids! She still has that carefree personality and loves just about everyone.

Pierre Takia

Age: 43

Continued Background: After graduating from the Stellvia II as one of the Big Four he went on to start courting Yayoi. But he failed after she decided to become a couple with Ayaka. Soon afterward he started dating Rinna and they eventually got engaged and moved to the Ultima II where they were married and started a family, eventually having three children. (see above) He teaches a World Culture class. Although he still tends to be a bit of a flirt, he loves Rinna and his children dearly.

Arisa Odawara

Age: 43

Continued Background: Formally Arisa Glenmore, she graduated at the top of her engineering class. She indeed became the apprentice of Juno Mayor and became one of the best multi-manipulator pilots in the fleet. She eventually started dating Dai and soon afterward got married. Both of them live onboard the El Santo II where she teaches an engineering class. She and Dai had two children. Ituko the oldest and only son, and Mei the daughter at 7 years old who still lives with them. She still has her hyper attitude and it tends to show up more then need be. But she is called one of the best and most fun teachers in the El Santo II Academy.

Dai Odawara

Age: 43

Continued Background: Also graduating near the top of his class Dai became a teacher of Philosophy. He soon started dating and eventually married Arisa. They moved to the El Santo when they were both offered good teaching jobs there. There they had two children. (see above) He's a little wiser now than when he was younger and he is well on his way to becoming dean of the El Santo II Academy.

Akira Jones

Age: 42

Continued Background: Formally Akira Kayama. Shortly after graduating from the Stellvia II, she and Joe got engaged and were married two years later. They soon settled back on Earth to start a family. She had trouble getting pregnant at first but after taking some fertility drugs they soon had faternal twins. A boy Joseph and a girl Joanne. She miscarried with another child 3 years later and was forced to have a hysterectomy, which was a big blow to both her and Joe, but they were both thankful they were able to have children of their own. She is still able to have sex. She is now a homemaker and sometimes works from home with a small cell phone repair business.

Joe Jones

Age: 42

Continued Background: A couple of weeks after Graduating from the Stellvia II Joe asked Akira to marry him. She said yes, but they waited two years before getting married. They settled down back on Earth where he became the head controller of the spaceport in Paru. He was excited when Akira finally was able to get pregnant and twins at that. (see above) Although he was happy when he learned that she had gotten pregnant again three years later, he fell into a depression after she miscarried and had a hysterectomy. It took him two years to get out of it. He is a little more reserved now than he used to be and is also less hyper now.

Yayoi Fujisawa

Age: 45

Continued Background: After graduating from the Stellvia II as the Halcyon's pilot she was shortly courted by Pierre. She refused him and started dating Ayaka. They now live together onboard the Stellvia II. They eventually adopted two daughters. Motoko and Dianna. Both of which have become excellent pilots. Yayoi still pilots the original Halcyon when needed but she is now the second in command of the Stellvia II after Jinrai Shirogane making her very busy.

Ayaka Machida

Age: 45

Continued Background: She is still the flight instructor for one of the beginning classes and still works her students hard. She became romantically evolved with Yayoi and they still live together. Although gay marriages are illegal do to the fact that the human population still needs to grow even 200 years after the first wave. They don't mind though. After adopting two daughters Ayaka become less aggressive and more motherly.

Ritsuo Shoujin

Age: 45

Continued Background: After becoming one of the senior class flight instructors, he eventually started dating one of the girls from Shima's graduating class (The one from Episode 11 who went out of control and was rescued by Ayaka and Najima. the one with blue hair, her name is not given.) and they eventually got married. They eventually had four sons. Karl, the oldest, is now one of the Big Four on the Stellvia II. There other sons Mark, Kyon, and Satoshi are also well on their way to becoming excellent pilots. He no longer wears his mouth mask but all four of his boys still do.

Najima Austin

Age: 45

Continued Background: Formally Najima Gable. She started dating Kent a year after they graduated. They eventually got married and she became an English Literary teacher. Kent went on to become a renown test pilot. They had one son Michel. Soon after his birth though, Kent was tragically killed while testing the new Gravity Drive system developed by Dr. Dennis Bale. She has never remarried and raised Michel alone; although many relatives did help. She still remains on the Stellvia II as an English Literature teacher.

Leila Barthes

Age: 56

Continued Background: Although she never married and has no children she is still one of the first year flight instructors and still has a harsh attitude. She was shortly romantically evolved with a fellow teacher but it never went anywhere. She is basically unchanged from the first Stellvia series.

Jinrai Shirogane

Age: 57

Continued Background: Is now the Dean of the Stellvia II and in command. Shortly after the last episode of the first series of Stellvia, he married Ren and had 2 daughters. Leeann ,the oldest, works as the assistant nurse on the Stellvia II along side her mother. His younger daughter Betty lives on Earth and is currently training to become a teacher like himself. He is still the brash and brave man from the first Stellvia series.

Ren Shirogane

Age: 56

Continued Background: Formally Ren Renaka. She is still the head nurse of Stellvia II and her eldest daughter assists her in her work. She married Jinrai shortly after the end of the first Stellvia series and had two daughters. She is still the kind and caring nurse that she has always been. She also teaches some of the medical classes too.

Masito Katase

Age: 40

Continued Background: Although not the natural genius as his sister he did excel in his piloting even earning a place in the Big Four. After graduation he shortly became a flight instructor for the Stellvia II before being called to be the head flight instructor for the Japanese National flight school. He went on to marry Mai Glenmore and have two children with her. Nodoka age 11 and Shiori age 8. He also helped raise both Rinna and Tsubasa, his two nieces.

Mai Katase

Age: 40

Continued Background: Formally Mai Glenmore. While in school her Bianca, and later her Katie were specially modified for her handicap. Since both her arms and one of her legs were artificial. She was a decent pilot and mechanic because of it. After graduating she became a flight instructor along with Masito for the handicapped like herself. She went on to marry Masito. Due to her weaken body she did have some difficulty while being pregnant with Nodoka and Shiori and also had trouble when giving birth. But both she and her two daughters came out of it just fine.

Author Note: Please look forward to this story as it's the first Stellvia fanfic on the site!


	2. To the Starts Once More

Disclaimer: I do not own Stellvia. Geneon and Xebec do.

**STELLVIA II: THE FINAL CRISIS**

**Chapter 1**

**To the Stars Once More**

It's a bright August day in Peru. A few clouds hang in the air and slowly drift idly by in a slight breeze. At the giant space port about 20 miles south of Lima, the hustle and bustle of a new flight of a Fujiyama craft is seen all over. Several giant metal containers are being rolled out to the large bullet shaped craft, full of supplies, spare parts, and other daily necessities to run the giant Space Station in orbit known a the Stellvia II. But one of the containers is being loaded in the back and is marked top secret. The only writing on the container says "INFI 03."

Meanwhile back at the loading gate, in one of its small cafes, two people sit at a table waiting for the call to board. A message scrolls across the fight board indicating that the Fujiyama flight will be leaving on time. A girl sitting at the table looks up briefly to read the message and then looks back down. She has long blue hair that is tied up into two balls directly in the back of her head with long pony tails coming down from them. She seems to have a nervous look on her face and has barely eaten any of her small steak.

"You ok there Rinna-chan? You look more nervous than usual." says a tall brown headed middle aged man across the table from her. The girl looks up suddenly. "I do!?" she says with a bit of shock. The man simply nods with a smile. "I'm sorry Uncle Masito. It's just it's been a long time since I was in space last. And I'm going to be alone up there without you guys." she says while fidgeting a little. Masito simply giggles a bit.

"You know you're acting exactly the opposite the way your mother acted when she left for the Stellvia." he says. Rinna looks up at him listening to the words he has to say about her mother. "Your mother was so determined to go to the Stellvia that she and your grandmother were constantly fighting about it all the way up to the day she left. You're lucky that everyone is approving of you going to your mother, father, mine and your aunt's Alma mater." he says with a grin.

Rinna simply smiles a little. She had heard about how her mother and Grandmother had fought in the past, but she never knew it was that bad. You'd never know it now. The two get along very well; as well as any mother and daughter do. "Sorry to keep you two waiting! The lines for the bathrooms around this time of day are so crowded." says a woman from behind her. Rinna turns around to face the middle aged, medium length brown haired woman holding the hands two younger girls.

"Don't worry aunt Mai, small kids always have to use the bathroom more often than adults and teenagers. Besides you're just in time." says Rinna back. "Ohh! Rinnane-chan that's mean!" says the younger of the two girls. Rinna pats the head of the smaller girl. "Sorry Shori-chan, Nodoka-chan, I didn't mean for it to sound mean. I was just stating a fact of biology." she says with a smile. The smaller girl Shori only puffs her cheeks in irritation.

About this time a message scrolls across the flight board indicating that the Fujiyama flight is now boarding. "The Fujiyama flight for Foundation Two, Stellvia II, will begin boarding in a few moments. All passengers should now make their way to the loading gate." announces a calm woman's voice over the PA system. "I guess we should all head to the loading gate now." says Masito. With that they pick up a few of Rinna's luggage and head toward the moving sidewalk. After a couple of minutes they reach the loading gate terminal.

As they step off the moving sidewalk they hear someone call out to them. "AH! Onii-chan!" Rinna looks over and sees a little five year old girl with dark brown hair running towards her. "Tsubasa-chan!" shouts Rinna. Rinna drops her bag, drops to one knee and embraces the little girl as she throws her arms around Rinna's neck. "This is a surprise! I didn't think you were going to make it!" says Rinna.

"The advantages of flying first class." says another man's voice. Rinna looks up in surprise. "Grandma Chiaki! And grandpa too!" she says with more surprise. "What? You think I was going to miss seeing off my granddaughter to high school? Well I had nothing else better to do." says Chiaki with a smile. "Ha ha ha! You're not fooling anyone mother. You were going to be here no matter what." says Masito. Chiaki gives him a stern look which makes him quickly back off.

Chiaki walks over to Rinna and gives her a hug and then kisses her on the forehead. "I'm so proud of you Rinna. Following in your mother's footsteps and going into space. We all know you will do just fine up there. But I will say the same thing I said your mother before she left for the Stellvia. Don't come back until you've made a name for yourself and made us all proud ok?" says Chiaki kindly. Rinna smiles. "I will! I promise! I promise you all I will do my best!"

"All passengers for the Fujiyama flight should now start boarding." comes the woman's voice over the PA system once again. "Well. I guess it's time for me to go now. I will miss everyone!" says Rinna as she begins to walk away. "Wait Onii-chan!" cries out Tsubasa. Rinna turns around to see Tsubasa running up to her holding a present. "Here onii-chan! Everyone wanted to give this too you just before you left!" says Tsubasa as she hands Rinna the present. Rinna looks at it for a second a little confused. "Try no to eat it all at once ok!" says Tsubasa.

Rinna smiles back at Tsubasa. "Thank you Tsubasa-chan. I'll try." says Rinna as she gives Tsubasa another hug good-bye. "Good-bye everyone! I'll miss you!" she shouts as she turns and runs to the terminal. "Bye Rinna-chan! We'll be sure to call you!" calls out Chiaki. "Ok!" shouts Rinna back as she waves back.

A couple of tears fall from Chiaki's eyes. "I'm going to miss her so much." she says. "Don't worry Grandma Chiaki. She'll be fine. I know she will do great things." says Nodoka. Chiaki wipes away her tears. "Of course she will…." she looks on as Rinna enters the terminal gate…. "Of course she will." she says with a smile.

A few minutes later after a short tram ride to the Fujiyama. Rinna enters the passenger deck and gets the usual "Buenos Tardes!" greeting from the flight crew. She makes her way across the large deck and takes her seat. "The Fujiyama flight will take off momentarily. All passengers should take their seats at this time." says the woman once again over the PA system. As Rinna sits down the restraining harness folds over her chest into place.

The giant shutters over the windows move downward and close, darkening the deck with only the faint glow of the small views screens on each chair. "And now an announcement from the control tower." says the woman once again. Suddenly the large view screen and all the smaller view screens come to life and then appears a middle aged man with short dark blue hair and tan skin.

"Greetings everyone aboard the Fujiyama. I'm the head control tower operator Joey Jones. I just want to wish everyone a happy and safe trip to the Stellvia II. And to all the new prep students I WISH YOU A LOT OF LUCK! HAVE FUN UP THERE! YOOHOO!!" she shouts as he gives a thumb's up. A few seconds later his image disappears with many people sweet dropping. Rinna looks over and sees on particular girl with her forehead in her hand and shaking it with a very embarrassed look on her face.

"Ha ha ha! That Joey Jones hasn't changed a bit." says a man beside of Rinna. Rinna looks beside her at a grayish-green haired man with a smile on his face. He looks over and sees her confused look. "I used to know Joey back he was a student aboard the original Stellvia many years ago." he explains. Suddenly whines from below echo through the passenger deck as the Fujiyama's gravity drive systems start up.

From the observation deck a mile away everyone is watching in anticipation of the Fujiyama's launch. Masito and his two daughters look on with binoculars while everyone else watches the viewscreen as it begins to distort because of the Fujiyama's gravity drive. Everyone watches as the Fujiyama becomes surrounded by gravity wakes and then one giant wake erupts from the Fujiyama and causes a shock wave to spread out from it across the entire launch pad all the way to the observation deck.

Everyone awes as they watch the Fujiyama slowly begin to rise off the ground and gradually gain speed. Within a few seconds it has reached 500 m.p.h. and quickly gets smaller as it heads toward space. Chiaki looks on at the familiar sight that she has seen twice before. "I guess I'll have to start looking up at space once again. But don't worry I'll be sure too look where I'm going too." she says with a grin at her husband. They both share a small giggle before looking back up as they watch the Fujiyama disappear from sight.

A few minutes pass when finally the restraining harness folds back over Rinna's head and locks back into place. Rinna lets out a small sigh at the relief that the launch went well. "The launch went without any problems. For the next four hours you may walk around the deck. Please enjoy your flight." says the woman over the PA system once again.

Rinna is about to stand up when she realizes she still hasn't opened up the present that Tsubasa gave her. With a few tugs on the wrapping she finally tears it off. She gives as smile as she sees it's a large jar full of her favorite candy. "Ah I see. So it was a jar of Compato. That's a nice gift to get." says the older man beside her. Rinna looks over and sees the older grayish-green haired man smiling at her.

"Oh uh yeah. Um… would you like a few?" she asks kindly. "Oh no I couldn't. They're specially for you. Make them last now." says the older man with a grin again. "Really I don't mind." says Rinna as she pops over the lid and grabs a few of the sweet candies and hands them to the older man. "Well if you insist." says the older man as he takes them.

"The flavors are…" "Soda, Maple, Cherry, and Sugar; Yes I know the flavors." says the older man interrupting Rinna. "So you've eaten Compato before?" she asks. "A few times. I knew this young girl student once who would constantly eat a few when ever she got nervous, which was pretty much all the time." says the older man. "Wow sounds like she didn't do so well." says Rinna. "Actually quite the opposite. She became one of the best pilots I have ever seen. And her programming skills were top notch too." says the older man. "Wow she must have been quite the character." says Rinna. "Yup." he answers.

"Hey can I ask you what will you do once you reach the Stellvia II?" asks the older man. "Well I'll be attending the Academy." answers Rinna. "Ha ha ha! No I mean what do you plan on doing afterward. What do you plan on doing with your life I mean?" says the older man. Rinna thinks for a second before answering. "I really don't know yet. I do want to go visit my parents again soon though. So maybe perhaps be apart of the crew of the next Colony ship like they are when it leaves the solar system. But for now being back in space after all these years is just fine for me." explains Rinna.

"Well sounds a little too philosophical for a person your age now doesn't it. So this isn't your first time in space huh?" asks the older man. "I guess I do sound a little philosophical don't I. And yes this isn't my first time. I use to live on the Vision with my parents when I was real little, back until when I was 3 or 4. I don't remember much from back then though so it does feel a little bit like it's my first time in space." answers Rinna.

"And what about you sir? What do you do?" asks Rinna. "Why don't you try and guess? What do you think I do?" answers the older man. "Well um…. you look like you'd be the owner of a souvenir shop or something like that." says Rinna. "HA HA HA! That does sound like someone I would look like I would be now doesn't it." says the older man while laughing. Rinna just has a confused look on her face.

A few minutes later Rinna stands up and stretches. "If you'll excuse me I need to stretch out my legs. I'm going go walk around a bit." she says with a smile. The older man simply nods his head. With that Rinna starts taking a walk around the passenger deck.

As Rinna walks around she looks at all the different people going to the Stellvia II also. Many are about her age; obviously new prep. students like herself. "I wonder who's going to be in my classes?" she wonders. There are many adults too at different ages. Most are probably academy staff and Stellvia II staff. And a few may be store employees. "One of them could be one of my teachers too." she says to herself.

Rinna walks around for another ten minutes so as to get familiar with some of the faces around her. She sees all sorts of different people. One young lady catches her eye. She's sitting all alone at a table sipping a cup of tea looking so sophisticated. "Wow…. she looks so beautiful." says Rinna to herself. As she looks on she sees several other interesting people.

She looks on at two other people sitting at another table talking and laughing to each other seemingly to have a nice conversation. One of them is the same girl she looked at after Joey Jones gave his little message. The other person is a boy that looks a little like her but with a different hair color. "Brother and sister maybe? Nah they look the same age." says Rinna to herself.

She looks over and sees a boy with short blue hair with read highlights down the sides having himself a nice cup of apple juice at the refreshment cart and talking to a couple of other young people. "Hmm he looks familiar somehow. I know I've seen him before somewhere." says Rinna to herself.

As she continues walking around she sees so many different people that she starts to feel a little overwhelmed. "Wow so many people going to the Stellvia II. I wonder if my mother felt this same feeling of nostalgia as I do right now when she fist went to the Stellvia." says Rinna to herself.

Rinna however is so distracted by all the people that she doesn't realize someone is coming out of the men's bathroom right ahead of her and she promptly bumps right into him. Rinna quickly looks up at the young man, who is a clear head taller than she is with short brown hair and dark brown eyes with a pair of ear buds in his ears, and is about to say sorry when she suddenly freezes as she sees he's giving her a rather cold stare causing her to sweat drop profusely.

Rinna just stands there for a brief moment looking into the young man's cold staring eyes. He finally blinks causing Rinna to snap out of her stare. "Ah! I'm very sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going! Please excuse me! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" says Rinna repeatedly in a panic as she bows repeatedly. Suddenly she feels a hand on her shoulder and looks back up. "Don't worry about. It happens." says the young man with a smirk.

Rinna suddenly feels a warmth in her cheeks as she begins to blush slightly. She watches as the young man walks over and lays down on a couch and begins listening to his music through his ear buds once more. All Rinna can think about is how his eyes went from cold to very warm and handsome. She suddenly snaps out of it and claps her hands over her cheeks. "Oh no what am I thinking about!" she says to herself as she shakes her head.

She finally makes her way back to her seat, sits down and let's out a sigh. "So have a nice walk?" asks the older man beside her. "Um. Yes I did. But I think I'll take a small nap now. We still have a few hours until we reach the Stellvia II." says Rinna. "Sounds good." answers the older man. Rinna reclines her seat, closes her eyes, and soon falls asleep.

A few hours pass when Rinna feels the need to open her eyes. It takes her a moment or two to do so. She sits up, stretches, and yawns. She looks down at her seat's small view screen clock and sees that three hours have past since she fell asleep. "So you feel rested enough?" asks the older man. "Yeah a little." answers Rinna.

Meanwhile on the bridge of the Fujiyama the main view screen pops on revealing a tall blonde headed young man. "This is the Stellvia II. Is the Fujiyama's flight plan still on time?" he asks. "This is flight 625 the Fujiyama. Michel Austin there is no change in flight plans. You may proceed with the show." answers the captain. "Roger that. Stellvia II out." comes the reply. The screen shuts off. "I hear this year's show is going to be the biggest they've had in a LOOONG time." says the helmsmen.

The captain then pushes a button on his chair. "This is your captain speaking. The Stellvia II will be in view in just a few moments and they have something special in store for everyone!" announces the captain over the PA system. At the same time of the announcement the shutters over the viewing windows retract and open up to a beautiful view of the Earth and space. Rinna is momentarily mesmerized by the view.

"Heh. The view hasn't changed a bit." says a voice from beside her. Rinna looks over to see the young man she had bumped into before standing a few feet away from her also looking out the window. "There it is! There's the Stellvia II! Right over there!" shouts a young boy. Rinna looks over and sees the young boy she had seen with that young girl on her walk pointing out the window. Rinna looks back and starts to squint a little. Finally she sees a small slivery-white speck slowly start the take the shape of a Foundation class space station. She opens her eyes and smiles at the amazing sight.

Meanwhile back on the Stellvia II. "The new students are finally here! Including your little sister! Go say hello Motoko!" orders Michel to a pilot in a Katie Mark II. "Roger that!" comes the reply. The view screen in her DLS goggles turns on as she gives a smirk. The launch bay doors on top of the Stellvia II quickly open up one after another. Three layers of them open up and the hum of dozens of gravity drives power up. "This is going to be good!" Motoko says to herself. "ALL KATIE CRAFT! LAUNCH!!" she shouts over the comm.

Suddenly dozens of Katie Mark II's blast out of the Stellvia II's launch bays. Dozens of greenish-blue gravity trails zoom out and away from the Stellvia II in a beautiful light display. Everyone onboard the Fujiyama are in awe at the slight of what looks like hundreds of streaks of light zigzagging all over the place.

"Ok people! Let's do this on the first try!" orders Motoko over the comm. again. A large group of Katies suddenly break away from the main group and start doing some highly practiced maneuvers. Everyone onboard the Fujiyama gasp in surprise as the maneuvers make their gravity trails start to form a phrase in space. "WELCOME TO STELLVIA II!" everyone cheers as they complete their maneuver.

"Here they come!" shouts the same boy from before. Suddenly the Fujiyama is surrounded by dozens of Katie Mark IIs flying in all directions. Then the main view screen along with the smaller ones, turn on to show a blond headed young man. "This is the student body president of the Stellvia II Academy, Michel Austin. To all the new students arriving today I just want to say on behalf of the entire student body, Welcome to Stellvia II!" announces Michel.

Then a purple haired girl appears onscreen. "And this is Motoko Machida, the leader of the Big Four, announcing to everyone to please make their way to the main hall once you arrive as we have a great party in store for all the new students! Welcome to Stellvia II and have a great time!" announces Motoko.

Rinna just stands there watching the Katie Mark IIs flying by the windows. "I bet you feel a bit like Wendy from Peter Pan, don't you?" says the older man. Rinna looks over to him with a slightly puzzled look. The older man then looks back out the window from his seat. "Those Katie Mark IIs are the most advanced ora-aves machines ever built. Heh. I still remember when Motoko and Michel's parents flew in the Big Four in the old model Katies that were only half as big as the Katie Mark IIs. Heh even I used to be quite the pilot too when I was younger." says the older man.

"You used to be a pilot!?" says Rinna with shock. "Yep. And a damn good one at that." the older man responds. Rinna just stands there for a moment. "Sir…. just who are you?" she asks. "You idiot." says the young man beside Rinna. "That's Jinrai Shirogane. He's the dean and commander of the Stellvia II Academy." explains the young man again.

"Eh?...**EHHHHHHH**!?" nearly shouts Rinna as she looks back at Jinrai with an extremely stunned look. "Yep that's me. On behalf of everyone, let me personally welcome you to Stellvia II." he says with a big smile on his face. Rinna just stands there with her mouth agape.

Within a few minutes the Fujiyama has docked with the Stellvia II and lets its passengers disembark. Rinna slowly makes her way to the Stellvia II's waiting terminal, sets down her bag and lets out yet another tired sigh. "Man what a way to start the school year. What could be next?" she says to herself.

"Rinna-chan!" she hears someone shout to her. Rinna looks over in the direction of the yell and immediately her face lights up. She watches as a shapely young girl with long reddish-purple hair with two large downward curling ponytails, runs towards her. "RITA-CHAN!" shouts Rinna. Rinna runs over and the two girls embrace each other in a big hug.

"Rita-chan what are you doing here? I was told that your ship, "_The Marker_" wasn't supposed to be here for another three days!" says Rinna with much surprise. "Heh heh heh. It wasn't, but apparently my mother had asked a favor of the captain. So he pushed the engines a little and got here yesterday! I've been waiting here since this morning to surprise you!" answers the young girl with a big smile.

"Wow this is great! What's it been? About four years now? Wow you've grown! I mean I've seen you in your video letters, but you look a lot different in person." says Rinna with even more amazement. "Haven't I?" says Rita as she strikes a sexy pose. "But you've grown up a lot yourself. Although one area looks like it could still use a little work." says Rita as she pokes Rinna small chest.

Rinna grabs her breasts and turns away while blushing. "I can't help it! Big breasts don't run in my family!" she says loudly. "Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Hey don't sweat it! Now come on! The welcoming party is about to start! We don't want to miss it!" says Rita as she grabs Rinna's hand. Rita pulls Rinna's arm and the two run off towards the welcoming party.

Meanwhile in the Stellvia II's cargo bay Jinrai Shirogane is making his way across a catwalk toward and old familiar face. "Hello there Ritsuo Shoujin. I hope you've been well?" says Jinrai to a man with green hair. "I have. How did your vacation on the Earth go?" asks the former Big Four member while he shakes Jinrai's hand. "It went quite well thank you. I even got the meet the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Atoyama on the way back. And I was even given a small gift as you can see." answers Jinrai. "One lucky guy it seems." says Ritsuo sarcastically with a slight grin.

The two men watch as the large container is opened up and a large robot is rolled out. It's solid black and its head looks like a bloated bullet. "Wow haven't seen one of these in a while. In fact I don't think there's been one built since the Halcyon. Why did they decide to go ahead and build another one?" asks Ritsuo. "They said it's going on "_The Ark_" when it departs. We've been chosen just to hold onto it until then." answers Jinrai. Ritsuo just looks back at it with a concerned look. He looks as though he seems to feel it's going to be used for something else. But for what? He doesn't know.

A few hours later in one of the boarding rooms on the Academy campus, Rinna and Rita are sitting on the couch in the middle of the room having just had all their boxes delivered. "Well! Well! Well! It seems as though our parents pulled a few strings here: getting us to be room mates an all." says Rita with a bit of sarcasm. "Yeah seems so." answers Rinna.

Rita turns to face Rinna. "Well roommate and best friend of mine! Here's too a wonderful year! May your luck run long and true!" says Rita trying to sound official. Rinna turns to face her too. "Oh yes! Your's too!" answers Rinna also trying to sound very official. The two bow to each other, sit back up, and share a nice laugh.

End of Chapter 1

To be continued in Chapter 2: First Days.

Author Note: Yeah Chapter 1 is done! I'm glad to see that there are a few Stellvia fans out there. Try and spread the word about this story if you can! As being the first on to make a Stellvia Fanfic, I promise to do my best to write a well written story that will make you come back to read again and again. This will be a bit of a long one so I hope you can be in it for the long haul.

Story Note: For anyone who has watched Stellvia you may have noticed that this chapter parallels a lot of the happenings from the first episode of the first series. You'll be seeing a lot of this. It's to show how Rinna and the other characters have similar life experiences as their parents did. Also this fanfic will be a little darker in nature than the anime was. Just to let you know!


	3. First Days

Disclaimer: I do not own Stellvia. Geneon and Xebec do.

Spelling Correction: I would like to point out that in the first chapter and the Introduction I had misspelled one of the character's names. Masito is supposed to be spelled _Masato_. Any more mention of him in my story will have this spelling correction.

**STELLVIA II: THE FINAL CRISIS **

**Chapter 2 **

**First Days **

A week has passed since the arrival of the new prep students. The week before the start of the semester was used for everyone to get used to their surroundings. The first two days were used to allow the new students to unpack, get settled in, get to know their neighbors and fellow students, and possibly make a few friends in the process. The next three days were used to get the students familiar with Stellvia II herself.

The first two days of the three the students were taken on tours of the academy itself. Mainly lead by a teacher or older student, the prep students were shown everything from the science labs, to the hanger bays, to the cafeteria, to the sports facilities, to the medical facilities, to the simulation rooms, music rooms, the giant sized library, to many of the classrooms.

The last of the three days were used to get the students familiar with the rest of Stellvia II; mainly taking tours of the shopping district which was more like a mall than anything else, the entertainment district with movie and play theaters and classy restaurants, to the main control room, to the many biking trails, to the different sports arenas outside of the academy.

The fifth day was used for students to get their supplies and uniforms from the school. It was also on this day that any changes to their schedules, school supplies, and/or uniform should be made. The uniforms have basically stayed unchanged for the past 25 years; except now the sleeves on the girls' uniforms have been shortened to just above elbow length and now have frills at the end that match the skirt. The boys' uniforms have their sleeves also shortened to just above elbow length but only with cuffs at the end. The final day was used to allow the students to rest and prepare for the first day of school.

Now the first day of class has arrived and all the students from the prep students to the seniors and staff have gathered in the main assembly hall for the traditional welcome speech. Rinna and Rita are sitting about halfway back in the rows next to each other near the middle of their row. They watch as a shapely middle aged woman with beautiful average length brown hair and glasses makes her way to the podium on stage.

"Hello everyone. I'm Yayoi Fujisawa. Most of you may already know me as being the former pilot of the Halcyon. I am now the second in command of Stellvia II. It's my personal honor and privilege to welcome all of you to Stellvia II. This school year especially is very special. Near the end of next semester "_The Ark_" will take 10,000 people as they embark for the first time to the stars. Some of you may know some people who are leaving and maybe even a few of you will leave as well. But many of you will be the leaders of tomorrow and perhaps be the crew members of the next ship to journey to the stars." says Yayoi. "On that note a few of my personal friends are-"

"Hey this is great isn't it?" says Rita to Rinna. Rinna looks over at her in surprise. "Huh?" she asks. "Being in the same class and being best friends. We're already ahead of everyone else when it comes to team work." says Rita. "Yeah I guess." says Rinna. "Hey I heard that Miss Fujisawa up there is a lesbian and she lives with one of the female flight instructors. What was her name again….. oh yeah Miss Ayaka Machida." says Rita. "Really?" asks Rinna. "Yeah and-"

"Excuse me but your being too loud. I'm trying to the listen." says a girl with long blue hair in the row ahead of the two girls. "Ack! Sorry!" says Rinna as the two girls straiten up. "Wow she's got a scary face." says Rita quietly. "Rita-chan that's not nice." responds Rinna. Rinna knows she's seen that girl before. "-And I hope you all have a wonderful year! Good luck to you all!" finishes Yayoi. A loud applause follows the end of her speech.

The day kicks off after the speech with the students going to all the different classes and trying them out to help them select which classes they think they will do their best in. First off Rinna and Rita try the 3D Tetris test. The test is meant to see how well students can adapt and react to a 3D interface. Needless to say that Rinna completes hers in record time, nearly breaking her mother's old record of 8.38 seconds that has stood for many years with Rita finishing just a few second behind. However it is broken by another student in the class by 1.5 seconds. All the students can't believe it, even the teacher.

"Very nicely done Mr. Bale." says the teacher to a tall male student in the back row. "Nothing new to me. I've played this game so many times since I was little it's practically second nature for me." responds the male student. Rinna looks back to him and recognizes him as the young man she met on the Fujiyama. "Damn! He must have the fastest reaction time ever recorded here." says Rita with amazement.

"Who is he anyway?" asks Rinna. "You mean you don't know!? He's Hudson Bale. He's the eldest son of Dr. Dennis Bale. The guy developed the improved gravity drive systems for the ora-aves machines and his design was implemented into "_The Ark's_" engines as well. Hudson there literally grew up learning about this stuff while kids his age were just learning how to do there ABC's! He grew up with this stuff even more than I was!" explains Rita. "What!? That's amazing!" says Rinna with a lot of shock.

The day wears on. Rita tries the Chemistry class but accidentally blows up one of the beakers. Rinna tries out for the Tennis team but only manages to hit the ball back once. Ituko Odawara and Hudson try out for the weight lifting team. Hudson manages to bench press 250 LBS while Ituko fails miserably by only being able to bench press 97 LBS. Joseph Jones tries out for the baseball team. He doesn't hit well but he's an excellent shortstop so he makes the team. Dianna Machida tries out for the band and does really well on the Flute. Joanne tries Home Ec. and promptly burns her cake to a crisp.

Then comes the dreaded math class in which the students are only allowed to use abacuses. "29,456 +12,379 x 90,213 + 43,566 x 34,733 what?" says the teacher very quickly. Immediately Hudson in the back raises his hand. "Ok Mr. Bale" says the teacher. "The answer is 133,494,918,976,144." answers Hudson. "That is correct. Very nice Mr. Bale." says the teacher. The teacher then notices Hudson hasn't even touched his abacus. "Mr. Bale did you even use your abacus?" asks the teacher. "Nope. Did it all in my head." Hudson responds. The class and the teacher just stare at him in disbelief.

Finally the school days ends with nearly every student exhausted. Rinna comes out of her last class and literally flops down on her stomach on a bench near a couple of vending machines. "Geez I'm so tired. I could fall asleep right here." she says to herself. "Yo Rinna-chan! Here." says Rita as she hands Rinna a cup of juice. "Oh thank you so much….yawn ahh sorry. I'm just really tired right now." says Rinna.

A girl with red hair made up in a neat flower shaped braid approaches the two girls. Rinna looks at her and recognizes her as the girl from the Fujiyama that looked so sophisticated. "I'm sure you've seen her before. She's in our class! May I introduce Miss Dianna Machida." says Rita. "Pleased to meet you. I'd get up and bow but my body won't let me at the moment." says Rinna.

"giggle That's ok. The same thing happens to many of the other students. The first day is always the most exhausting." says Dianna with a smile. " Machida?... Machida?... Hey are you related to Ayaka Machida?" asks Rinna. "Yes. I'm her adopted daughter." answers Dianna. "Adopted? Wait. Don't tell me… Does that mean you're also the daughter of Yayoi Fujisawa?" asks Rita. "That I am. I have two mothers." answers Dianna. "I'm also the sister of Motoko Machida. You saw her as one of the Big Four during the Fujiyama flight." says Dianna.

"Wow that's amazing. You already have three famous family members. Must be tough being expected to follow in their footsteps." says Rita. "Sometimes. But I'm actually pretty good myself so, so far I have lived up to those expectations." says Dianna with a grin. "I know how you feel Dianna. People have been expecting me to live up to my parents expectations too. I've mainly grown up hearing about my legendary parents rather than having them tell me themselves. But I don't mind much." says Rinna.

"Anyway the main reason why I'm here is because I would like to invite you two over to my room so we can help each other choose our classes." says Dianna. "What do you mean?" asks Rinna. "Well we can help each other choose classes which we think are a good match for us. After all that is what this school teaches us: Responsibility, teamwork, and self-improvement." says Dianna. "Ok then. Sure we'll join you!" says Rita. "Oh and my roommate will also being joining us if that's ok." asks Dianna. "Sure." says Rinna.

Moments later the three girls arrive at Dianna's room. The door opens and a long blue haired girl stands up from the red couch and faces the door. Rita and Rinna gasp in surprise. "This is my roommate, Joanne Jones." says Dianna. "Please to meet you." says Joanne. "You're that scary girl from the assembly this morning." says Rita. "Ah! Rita-chan that's rude!" says Rinna with shock. "sigh Yeah sorry about that. It's a trait inherited from my mother. She always seems to have a sour look on her face and sometimes my face looks that way too. Unlike my father who you must have seen do that embarrassing send off before the Fujiyama took off. I'm actually a pretty nice person." says Joanne with a sheepish grin. "So. Shall we?" says Dianna. The girls then start going over their class choices.

The weekend comes and goes. The two days were used to allow the students time to choose their classes. It's very early Monday morning and Rinna is sitting at her computer looking over her school schedule. "Ok it took all weekend but I finally have chosen all my classes. A good portion are my favorites but a few I know I'll have a very tough time with. I just hope I'm up to this." she says while looking directly at the Flight training class icon.

Rinna is about to shut off her computer when suddenly a little icon on her screen that says "Mail" pops up on her screen. She clicks on it and a message begins to play. Rinna smiles a big smile when she sees her mother's face light up on the screen. Shima is sitting near a window with a nice view of Pluto behind her just to the right.

_"Hi Rinna-chan! How are you doing? Sorry we haven't been able to send you a message in a while but we've been really busy. Even more busy than usual. By my estimates this message should get to you by Monday morning. It's Friday Afternoon now. You should have just completed your first day of school. So how was it? I hope you didn't have much difficulty in choosing your classes. I hear that Rita-chan is there too. I hope you two get along well as roommates! And I hope you make a lot of friends, and perhaps even a boyfriend."_

"Oh mother!" says Rinna in embarrassment while blushing.

_"Oh! I have some good news to report. First of all "The Ark's" main engines all cheeked out green so that was one of the biggest accomplishments we have had in a long time. I think the news about it should be reported in another couple of days. And some even better news. Your father and I have been invited to be guest speakers at the Stellvia II's opening ceremony for the beginning of next semester in January. So we'll be able to have a nice reunion then. Please look forward to it! I'll be sending another message to Tsubasa after I get done with this one. Well I hope you have a good time this week. Try not to exhaust yourself everyday. Find time to relax and enjoy yourself! I'll be sure to send you another message next week! Bye! _

_Oh one more thing! I'm sure today, meaning Monday, you're going to have your first flight training class. Try not to get embarrassed about the flight suits and don't go and reprogram the navigational software. You'll only whined up with a weird nickname if you do. Bye! And remember we love you!" finishes Shima. _

Rinna smiles. Her mother hasn't changed much. Her hair still done up in that professional looking way. Done in one ball at the top side of her head with her medium length hair wrapped tightly around it. She knows she looks more like her father, but her little sister is all her mother. But she doesn't care. She loves both her parents very much. Rinna then straitens out her morning hair with a brush and then turns on her computer cam to record a message. "Hey mom and dad. I received your message just a little while ago-"

The morning classes come and go with relative ease. It's now about 1:00 PM shortly after lunch and Rinna's class has met up in the hanger bay classroom with their flight suits neatly folded on their assigned desks. Rinna is looking over her flight suit and can clearly see why her mother warned her not to be embarrassed about it. Although it's tough not to be that way. Suddenly the door to the room opens up and in walks an older looking woman. She is clearly in her 50's with premature wrinkles around her eyes and cheeks. The signs that she'd had a stressful teaching job

"Good afternoon class. I am your flight instructor Miss Leila Barthes. First off I want to say that I will not stand to take crap from any of you! I am here not only as your instructor but also as your guardian outside of the Stellvia II. So listen to me and you'll do fine. Ignore me and you run the risk of seriously injuring yourself or someone else, or even worse. NOW! To start off, you should know that in recent years the training craft used has been updated and replaced with the newer Bianca MK-IIs. These are twice the size of the original as well as twice as powerful and faster. So you MUST pay attention to me and try your best to follow my lead. This is no picnic people. Training to be a pilot of one of these birds will be one of the toughest hardships you'll ever face while being a student here. Now! Go change and meet me in the hanger in ten minutes. Move it!" says Leila with a lot of authority.

Rinna is a little stunned for a moment due to Leila's harsh sounding speech. She snaps out of her shock quickly, picks up her flight suit, and heads to the changing area. Rinna is partly way through changing when she finally realizes the flight suit requires you not to wear underwear underneath the suit. She looks over at the other girls changing and also notices the flight suits are skin tight, leaving very little to the imagination. Now she REALLY knows why her mother was telling her to try and not be too embarrassed about the flight suits.

"So what do you think Rinna? Really shows off the sexiness of my body don't it? says Rita as she strikes a sexy pose. Rinna looks over. "Yeah…. You're lucky to have such a body. I'm nowhere near having a nice body like that." says Rinna a little down. "Hey don't worry about it! There are plenty of guys out there who like the petite figure." says Rita. "Yeah sure….. I've just never met one before." says Rinna. Rita just laughs a little. "Come on! Hurry or you'll be late!" says Rita.

Moments later all the students have gathered in the hanger bay underneath the larger Bianca MK-IIs when Leila comes by to make sure everyone is present. Seeing no one missing she begins to speak. "Alright everyone these suits are for your projection. If for some reason you have to eject or completely leave your craft the tight seal and air tight layers in the suit will protect you until you're picked up. Just don't forget your helmet when you leave. I tragically watched one of my students do that about ten years ago. She died instantly. OK EVERYONE! Give me ten laps around the hanger making sure your suits are fully fictional and then met me up at the loading ramps." says Leila. "YES MA'AM!" comes the response.

About 15 minutes later all the students have completed their laps and have made their ways to the ramps. The ramps extend out and the students all board their individual Bianca MK-IIs. Leila is now in a scooter looking at her panel with all the students faces on them. She then notices something odd with one of them. "Hudson Bale." she calls. "Yes?" he responds. "Just what are you typing on the control panel?" she asks. "Nothing. I'm not changing any of the programming if that's what you're thinking. I'm just checking out the specs of the ship to make sure everything is in running order." he says. "Not surprising given your background, but I must ask you to stop and wait until we are outside to do that." says Leila. "Fine." responds Hudson.

"Ok Decompress!" says Leila just after she leaves the hanger. The vents on the sides of the hanger open up, slowly allowing air in the hanger to be sucked back it the air recycling system. Next the gravity is turned off and the hanger doors begin to open giving everyone a beautiful view of the Earth; that is if their monitors could see the way humans see. The lower group of Biancas begins to shift down. "First group launch!" comes an announcement from the control room.

The lower four Biancas drop from the racks and plunge into space with many of the students screaming as they fall. They eventually level off at about the same distance. The next four groups soon follow. A few kilometers away a group of Katie MK-IIs are watching. Motoko Machida is watching her monitor when a communiqué comes in. Up pops Michel's face. "Hey! You watching?" he asks. "Yup I sure am! Brings back memories doesn't it?" she says. "Ha! Yeah it does. Hope they don't have too many problems." says Michel as his face disappears from her monitor. Motoko pushes a few buttons and her monitor focuses on one particular Bianca. "Good luck Dianna." she says to herself.

Back out at the group Leila has made her way about two Kilometers away from the group. "Alright everyone. Get oriented and face me. Then slowly try and make your way to me." she commands. "Rodger!" comes the response. Slowly and with many wobbles and jerks all the students start making their way toward Leila's Bianca. Three Biancas don't have much trouble and quickly make their way to Leila's Bianca. "No surprise with you three." says Leila to Rinna, Rita, and Dianna.

Meanwhile in the control room Najima Austin has made her way into the room. "So how are they doing?" she asks the ensign at the control comm. "Ah. Mrs. Austin you're English Literature class finished? So far so good. Rinna, Rita, and Dianna have done as expected. They went strait to Miss Leila." says the ensign. "The youth are our future just as we were once our parents' and grandparents'." she smiles as she quotes another line from Shakespeare.

Within a minute or so everyone in the class has made it to Leila's Bianca. "Ok everyone nice job." says Leila. "Yeah just as expected from the 'Tri-prods'." says Ituko. "The what?" asks Rinna. "Tri-prods. The three female prodigies of the class. Meaning you three." says Ituko. Everyone including Leila, but excluding Rinna, laugh at the playful remark. "Oh great I don't mess anything up and I STILL get a dumb nickname." says Rinna. "You mean 'WE' right?" says Rita. Everyone laughs again.

"Ok everyone. You've had your fun. Now it's time to teach you some basic piloting techniques that will-" "Um Miss Leila. Hudson's headed back to the Stellvia II." says Dianna as she interrupts Leila. "What?" says Leila. She quickly gives a scan of the area and sure enough Hudson is already halfway back to the Stellvia II. "Bale? What on Earth are you doing?" asks Leila harshly. "I'm headed back to the Stellvia II! What does it look like I'm doing? The Y yaw axis stabilizer is either calibrated wrong or is malfunctioning because it won't steer right." says Hudson with about the same attitude.

Leila, a bit irritated, proceeds to do an auto-scan of Hudson's Bianca, but it comes back all green. " Hudson I'm not detecting any problems with your Bianca. Now get back here to the class or I'll suspend you for trying to skip class!" she orders. "Listen you grey-headed dunce! You're not flying this thing! I AM! I can feel the problem all the way to my cockpit! Now if you don't mind I prefer not to endanger the other students or myself with a defective part." says Hudson back. "Ohhhhhh!!!!" says a few of the other students.

"Now see here you little idiot! My scans are a lot better than most of the Biancas in the fleet! I read all your systems as all green! Now get back here at once!" Leila then starts chasing after Hudson. "No! I know these Biancas inside and out I can tell clearly when there is a problem with one of them! And no matter how many times you scan my Bianca It doesn't change the fact that there IS something wrong with it." Hudson says back with equal harshness. He then speeds up.

"Fine! If you won't come back on your own then I'll just have to MAKE you!" yells Leila. "Just try it!" Hudson dares. Leila gives a very notable growl as she starts typing on her console. "WHAT!? Access Denied!? But how!? The only other person who ever did that to me was Shima Atoyama!" she says to herself. Suddenly a communiqué pops up on her screen. "Excuse me Miss Leila but are you going to stop that Bianca?" asks Najima from the control room. "I've tried! He's locked me out." says Leila as she watches Hudson enter the hanger bay.

Najima frowns a little. "Ok. Go get your class and bring them back in. Because if he IS right the other Biancas could have defects in them too." says Najima. Leila gets a very stubborn look on her face. "Leila remember his background. He helped his father build the Bianca MK-IIs He just maybe right this time." adds Najima. "Grr Fine! But he's still going to get it from me." says Leila.

Within a few minutes everyone has docked and exited their Biancas. Well except Hudson who is already on the back of his Bianca with a tool kit and is already working on the Y yaw axis stabilizer. Leila then comes marching in mad as hell and stomps her way to Hudson's Bianca. "Bale! Get your ass down here now!!!!" she commands loudly. "Just a second." says Hudson. "**NOW!!!!**" she yells even louder. "AND I SAID TO WAIT A DAMN MINUTE!" he shouts back. Hudson finally removes a part off his Bianca. He then jumps down in front of Leila. Most of the class has gathered behind her.

"Now see here you pampas ass! How dare you try and make a fool of me out there! I am your teacher! You have NO right to talk back to me! Just for your…. insubordination you are here by suspended from the academy for rest of the semester!" she shouts as she points right into Hudson's face. "Fine! But before you act you should take a look at this!" Hudson shouts back as he shoves a small device about the size of a person's fist into Leila's face nearly smashing her nose in the process.

Leila snatches the part out of Hudson's hand and chunks it across the hanger bay. "I don't care what you try and show me now. You're suspended! Now get out of here!" shouts Leila. "Not so fast Miss Barthes." comes a voice from the back of the hanger. Walking across the catwalk is Commander Jinrai Shirogane with the small part in his hand. He approaches Leila and hands the part back to her again. "You just may want to look at it." he says.

Leila, frustrated, snatches the part again and finally takes a look at it. Her eyes then open wide as she can clearly see something very wrong with the part. "As you can see Miss Leila Barthes, both the primary and secondary stabilizer seals are cracked and leaking. As you know the part's seal coolant is right next to the secondary power distribution converter. A short circuit of this can cause total power loss and even an onboard fire. The reason why your scanners weren't able to pick it up is because the Y yaw axis stabilizer is also right next to the magnetic distribution field generator, which can disrupt scans." explains Hudson.

Leila just stands there silent. Hudson snatches the part once again. "Now if you'll excuse me I got to get this part replaced, make repairs, and reroute some of the power distribution through other areas to prevent a fire." says Hudson. Hudson walks back to his Bianca MK-II and sits down in his pilot seat. He then notices everyone looking at him. "What are you looking at!? You guys should go and cheek your Bianca MK-IIs also to see if you have the same defect!" he yells. He then closes his cockpit door. Rinna is a little taken back by Hudson angry demeanor and somehow it makes her upset too.

"I'll go have a talk with the maintenance crews. You should go cheek your Bianca and order that all Bianca MK-IIs be cheeked immediately to see if there is any more defects." says Jinrai. Leila finally snaps back to reality at Jinrai's order. "Damnit!" she mumbles under her breath. She then looks back at the rest of the students with a VERY angered look causing most of them to take a step backward. "Everyone to your ships! Go over every part on you Bianca MK-II to make sure you have no problems!" orders Leila. YES MA'AM!" they all shout.

Several hours later it's nearing lights out time. Rinna and Rita are getting ready for bed. Rinna meanwhile has a very upset look on her face. "Come on Rinna calm down." says Rita. "I can't 'calm down'! Can you believe just how rude Hudson was to Miss Leila and us. Not only that but he made us miss our class and made us spend the next three hours going over every part of our Bianca MK-IIs! This is not how I wanted to spend my first flight class! He ruined it! He is such an egotistical self-centered know-it-all! I hate him!" fusses Rinna. "True, but he was right you know. It was discovered that 18 other Bianca MK IIs and about 16 Katie MK-IIs had critical defects in one way or another." explains Rita. Rinna just looks away while she lies down in her bed and covers herself. "She's right, but Hudson didn't have to act so mean about it." she says to herself.

Meanwhile in the teacher's meeting at the end of the day Leila and several of the other teachers have gathered to discuss what had happened. "That Hudson is a menace. How dare he talk back to me that way." says Leila out loud. "You have to admit though that without him noticing this there could have eventually been many accidents and even casualties." says Ritsuo Shoujin. "True, but that doesn't matter! Because of him every flight class is now going to be behind and will be hard pressed to catch up! I don't think he's cut out to be a pilot. He should just stick with maintenance." says Leila.

"Now. Now. Let's not rush things. One of the Bianca MK-IIs that had a dangerous defect was my daughter Dianna's. I own him for potentially saving her life and we ALL own him for saving the lives of many of the other students as well. I am willing to look over his shouting match with you for those reasons alone." says Ayaka. "I agree. Besides his piloting skill while nursing a crippled Bianca MK-II back to the hanger was impeccable. You shouldn't dismiss him from the flight corp. just because he yelled back to you Leila. That would be childish!" says Jinrai.

Leila seeing that she is outnumbered and defeated finally relents. "Ok Fine! But one of us should at least have a talk with him about how to properly talk to a teacher if there is a problem. We should try and avoid another shouting match." says Leila. The other teachers agree. "We should also look closer at why so many ships suddenly had so many parts broken and defects. We have one of the best maintenance crews in the Solar System and this should not have happened. We should also ask and see if any of the other Foundation Academies had this same problem." says Jinrai. Everyone agrees again. And with that the meeting is adjourned.

Hudson meanwhile is in his dark room with only one lamp on, reading, of all things, the schematic manual of the Bianca MK-II trying to figure out what could have caused the Y yaw axis stabilizer to rupture both seals without anyone noticing. He knows something is very wrong and wants to find out what it is.

End of Chapter 2.

To be continued in Chapter 3: Sabotage?

Author note: Took a while but got this chapter done. I had to redo a few parts because somehow my initial story wasn't going to fit for later chapters. Anyway one heck of a shouting match eh? I hope you look forward to the next chapter! Oh and to Shima-chan I would love to read your story! So don't be afraid to post it! Even if it's bad at least you know someone took the time to read it. And who knows people may actually get to like it!

Story Note: So now starts the school year. What's in store for our rambunctious group of students? How and what caused so many of the Ships to have so many bad parts? Please read to find out! Originally I was going to have Ayaka be the instructor of Rinna's class, but I figured that having Dianna in there might cause a problem with mother a daughter being in the same class so I decided to bring back Leila as the flight instructor. See you next Chapter!


	4. Sabotage?

Disclaimer: I do not own Stellvia. Geneon (use to) and Xebec do.

To Reviewers. I have blocked all anonymous reviewers due to harassment. You must sign in to review. Any and all hatful comments not pertaining to this story shall be reported.

**STELLVIA II: THE FINAL CRISIS**

**Chapter 3**

**Sabotage?**

Late Saturday afternoon. It's been almost a week since the incident in the first flight training class where Hudson and Leila got into a big argument that resulted in the discovery of a fleet wide problem. A lot of the small craft had parts that were defective or malfunctioning in some way. This forced the docking of all small craft and the cancellation of all training classes until further notice. During the week all training craft from the newest Bianca MK-IIs all the way up to the teacher's Katie MK-IIs were being totally overhauled with every part throly inspected before being installed.

Rinna and Rita are in the shopping district, like any normal teenagers, mainly just widow shopping and walking around. Rinna is wearing a pink, button dress shirt and tan kacky pants that are cut off half way down her shins, while Rita, however, is wearing a sexy solid black miniskirt that shows off a lot of her long sexy legs and exposes plenty of her cleavage. She's also wearing dark red lipstick and some eye shadow. And wearing highheels is only adding to her sex appeal. And as expected she is drawing a lot of attention from the young males around her. And she loves it.

Rinna and Rita are on the moving sidewalk headed to the restaurant section of the shopping district. Rinna looks up out of the viewing dome above the shopping district at all the large cruisers and cargo ships passing by. One cruiser catches her attention as it begins its docking procedure. It has dark red stripes down the side indicating that the ship is from the Odyssey II. As she watches it dock she can barely make out the name of the ship. "_The Caesar._" Rita looks over and sees that Rinna still has a bit of a sour look on her face. The same one she's had since Monday. "Oh come on Rinna-chan you're not still upset about Hudson having our flight classes canceled are you? Come on lighten up! We came out here today so we can have a good time and get your mind off that stuff. Cheer up already." says Rita.

Rinna looks slightly at the ground. "Yeah I know. But I can't help it. Every time I try my mind keeps going back to how rude and mean he was to Miss Leila." says Rinna. "Yeah I have to admit he was a bit crude there, but you have to admit. His actions did save a lot of people from getting hurt, or worse." explains Rita as she puts her hands on the back of her head.

"True. But there are a lot better ways of going about it. He didn't need to act like such a know-it-all." says Rinna as she gets that sour look on her face again. "Well technically when it comes to the Bianca MK-IIs, he IS Mr. Know-it-all. *giggle***" **says Rita.** "**Ohhh!!! Rita-chan! You know what I mean! Don't try and twist my words!" yells Rinna at Rita bit flustered.

"Ok! Ok! Have it your way. I wasn't trying to defend him or anything." says Rita as she jumps back a bit with her hands up waving in front of her. "Geez by your reaction there you sound you may actually may like the guy" says Rita jokingly. "Ah-!" Rinna can only let out a squeak of surprise. She stands there in utter shock with her mouth agape and a bright red blush appears on her face.

Rinna's brain filly catches up to that comment. "RITA-CHAN!" nearly screams Rinna. "Uh-oh." says Rita and she turns and starts running (rather comically since she's in highheels). "Get back here you!" yells Rinna as she gives chase with little puffs of steam coming out of her head. "OK OK! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!" shouts Rita back.

The two finally stop running and Rinna lets out a sigh. "Geez! Don't even kid about that stuff. How in the world could I possibly like a knuckle-head like him!?" says Rinna as she crosses her arms. "I don't know. He's seems dreamy to me! He is quite the handsome fellow." says Rita with a dreamy look on her face. "Handsome yes. Future husband material. NO! Why if he were here right now I'd give him a piece of my mind about that shouting match he had with Miss Leila." Rinna quickly responds again with her arms crossed.

"Looks like you can have that chance. Isn't that Hudson and the other guys in that juice bar over there?" says Rita as she points beside of Rinna. "Huh?" says Rinna as she turns to look. Sure enough she sees Hudson, Ikuto, and Joseph in the back of a familiar Juice bar playing a game a pool. Rita then grabs Rinna's hand. "Come on! Let's go over and say hi! You can even give Hudson a piece of your mind like you said you'd do!" says Rita with a wink. "Uh wait a minute Rita-NAH!" yelps Rinna as she gets yanked by the arm.

As the girls get closer they can start to make out what Hudson and the others are saying. Hudson bends over to take his shot at the 8-ball which is the last one he needs to sink. He takes aim and hits the Q-ball. It hits the 8-ball and it rolls to the cornet pocket, but just barely bounces off the corner and rolls back near the center of the table. "Ahh fudge." Hudson says with a less than enthusiastic tone.

"Wow Hudson you're game is really off today. Usually you'd run the table against us." says Ikuto. "Yeah I know. I've just been really distracted by this fleet shut down thing. I just don't get how all of this could have happened without anyone noticing." says Hudson. "Excuses! Excuses! Time for me to sink this easy shot and finally win $50 from you!" says Joseph with confidence.

Joseph bends over and takes aim at an easy shot to the side pocket. Suddenly – "Hi guys!" comes a call from the entrance of the juice bar. Joseph quickly looks up and is shocked to see a hot looking Rita walking over to them, and as expected he misfires his shot. The Q-ball hops over the 8-ball and goes right into the side pocket. "Ah oh no!!" he yells. *SLAP!* "Ha ha ha! Well Joseph! Looks like you owe Hudson another $50!" says Ikuto with a sarcastic laugh as he slaps Joseph on the back. "Ah damnit!" he curses as he reaches for his wallet.

"Tell me Hudson did you plan to have a dolled up Rita walk in to distract me at the last second?" asks Joseph. "No. But it was great timing." he says as he takes the $50. Rita and Rinna reach the pool table. "Holy cow Rita! We all knew you were one of the hottest girls in school, but wow! Seeing you dressed up like this is like a dream come true!" says Ikuto. "Why thank you!" says Rita as she strikes a sexy pose, which in turn makes the two guys drool.

Rinna looks over at Hudson real quick and he looks over at her for a second. Rinna gives him a stern look and then looks away real quick. "Humph." she grunts. Hudson jerks a bit with a "What did I do?" look on his face. "You guys want to sit a talk for a while?" asks Rita. "Sure. We just got through with our pool game anyway." says Ikuto. As the five walk over to a nearby booth the bartender speaks up. "And what would you two ladies like?" he asks.

"I'll have one of your citrus smoothies please! And make it extra sweet if you don't mind!" says Rita with a smile. "Oh! Uh. I'll have a water with some lemon please." says Rinna. "Coming right up!" says the bartender. Rinna then notices Hudson looking at her again. "What?" she asks with another stern look. "Eh…. Nothing. It's just my mother always orders a water with lemon." he says. Rinna for some reason blushes ever so slightly. "His eyes went soft again." she thinks to herself.

The five sit down in a booth and begin to chat. "So what have you guys been doing since our flight classes were canceled?" asks Rita with her chin in her hands and her elbows on the table. "Well I've had more time to practice for my baseball team. Getting better at hitting the ball actually." says Joseph. "Well this has been great for my engineering classes. We've been going to hangers to watch overhauls and learn about the different parts to the Bianca MK-IIs and the Katie MK-IIs. It's been really helpful in my studies." says Ikuto.

"And what about you Hudson?" asks Rita as her and Rinna's drinks are brought to them. "Well I've been very busy this week. My dad had asked me to help in the investigation of what went so wrong. He's doing everything he can on Earth checking out the factories and assembly lines that make the Ora-avies parts, while I'm up here inspecting every bad part they find and supervising the overhauls. Being the son who helped his father help build the next generation Ora-avies machines can be very demanding at times." explains Hudson.

"Wow. Sounds rough." says Rita. "It is. This is actually one of the few times I've been given some time off during the week." adds Hudson. "So any ideas or leads on what could have happened?" asks Ikuto. "Oddly no. Every part that's been pulled is always different. Not one part that was damaged or malfunctioning was the same as the other part in the craft beside it. It was always a different part. And that's what has us scratching our heads." says Hudson.

"Hm… well it sounds to me like there was a mass mix-up in the factories. That's the only thing I can think of." says Ikuto. "But that's just the thing. My father and I thought that too, but he has inspected most of the factories and has gone through all their records and computer recordings and, besides the occasional mess up on the assembly line, nothing was out of the ordinary. He even sent me the information and I've gone through every page. There's just no proof that the bad parts came from the factories." explains Hudson.

"This is a mystery. I can't think of another reason." says Joseph as he leans back in the booth. Hudson also leans back and crosses his arms, but he has a very serious look on his face. He stays silent for a second and then speaks back up. "I can think of only one other thing that could be the reason." he says. "What is it?" asks Rita as she takes sip of her smoothie. "Sabotage." he answers. Everyone gasps. "Sabotage!?" says Joseph out loud.

"SHHH!!! Not so loud!" responds Hudson quickly. "But how can you think that? I mean the chances of someone or someones being able to have access to all the training craft, as well as the teachers' ships, being able to damage so many different parts, and doing it while slipping past all the security around the hangers is difficult enough. But, not to mention, the maintenance crews cheek all the craft before a class or mission starts, I mean the chances have to be astronomical to pull that off." says Rita. "Very true. But the chances of so many parts on so many craft failing all at the same time….. are even higher than that. Sabotage is the only way this could have happened." says Hudson.

"Well have you told military security about this?" asks Ikuto. "I have. I also told the maintenance crews, several of the teachers and even tried to take it to Mr. Shirogane himself, though he's been very busy. But every single one of them scoffed at the idea. Security said they didn't receive any reports about suspicious activities and none of the alarms went off in the hanger or maintenance bays. The maintenance crews said that they went over all the craft before any of the morning classes. And the teachers said they couldn't believe a saboteur could be on board because every person goes through a throe security background cheek before they are allowed to work here or even study here." explains Hudson.

"Do you suspect a cover-up?" asks Ikuto. "No. Everyone I told this too looked as though they generally didn't believe me. And believe me I can tell if someone is lying." says Hudson. Rinna who had been quietly sipping her lemon water finally speaks up. "Well given all this information the only conclusion is that someone is hiding something. What you need is to find some proof that there is a saboteur or saboteurs on board." says Rinna calmly. "Precisely what I had already concluded. And I may have a plan on how to get some, though it runs the risk of getting expelled." says Hudson.

"What do you plan on doing?" asks Rita. Hudson leans in a little and starts to talk softly so no one else can hear him beyond the booth. "I plan on accessing the main security server to download all personnel files. I can then go and interview all the ones I find that seem suspicious. It's a long shot but I think it could work." explains Hudson. "Sounds very risky if you ask me. Isn't the security server room constantly guarded?" asks Rita.

"It is. And that's the problem. I have the security clearance to get in, but I'd never get permission to get the files, plus it takes two people to man the controls in the sever room, and I'd never be able to get past the guard at the door." explains Hudson. "Wait? You? Have security clearance?" asks Rinna. "Yeah. I AM apart of the investigation. I've been given some security clearance to help with the investigation. I just don't have enough of it to get me past the security guard and into the security server room." explains Hudson.

"He he! You can leave the security guard to me. I know a way to distract him." says Rita with a wink and a sexy smile. "Wait. You don't mean you're going to use your…assets do you?" says Rinna with some worry. "In a manner of speaking yes. The thing is I know most of the security guards are only about 18-21 years old. So it stands to reason that they're nothing but rookies who'd rather be on a date with a hot girl rather than standing guard in a dark hallway for hours on end. I can easily distract the guard long enough for you and Hudson to slip into the security server room and download the necessary files." says Rita.

"Huh? Wait! Why do I have to help out?" asks Rinna with a bit of shock. "Well, as Hudson said, it takes two people to man the controls in the server room, and you're the only other person I know here who has the ability to access just about any program." says Rita. "But I don't want to risk getting expelled! Or worse! Arrested!" says Rinna in protest. "Would you rather risk the saboteur or saboteurs getting away and possibly sabotaging your Bianca MK-II next?" says Hudson. Rinna only looks down and moans.

"Hey what about us? Don't we get a part of this plan?" asks Ikuto. "Don't worry I have a part for you two also. So here's my plan." begins Rita. Everyone leans in to hear Rita's plan while she whispers. After a few minutes of explaining her plan she then leans back. "So what do you think? Shall we all meet up at the server hallway entrance tomorrow at 1:30 p.m.?" she asks. "Sounds good. Ok we'll all meet up at the indicated time and then we will set our plan in motion." says Hudson. With that the group separates for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile as they are departing for the day some very important people are getting ready to disembark from _"The Caesar."_ The Docking bay door slides open and a large elderly old man with a cane walks through; his eight stripes on his shoulder pad just below his patches indicating his rank of Fleet Admiral. He is followed by a younger man in his 40's with dark gray hair. Jinrai Shirogane and Yayoi Fujisawa are there to greet them. As the elderly man exits Jinrai extends his had as a greeting.

"Ah! Admiral Curt Wagner. It's been a while. I take it that your trip from the Odyssey II was a pleasant one? How's life treating you?" he asks with a smile as Yayoi bows. "It was. I am 75 after all. I've been making these kinds of trips since I was in my 20s so I'd better be used to them by now. And I'm doing just fine. Ever since I retired from being the Odyssey II's commander and became Fleet Admiral I've actually had it rather easy." explains Mr. Wagner.

"And how's Ren and your daughters doing? I take it they've been rather busy since the new semester has started." asks Mr. Wagner. "Well somewhat. Since the flight classes are canceled for now there's a bit of a lull in the medical calls. I take you already know Miss Fujisawa, second in Command of the Stellvia II." says Jinrai. "How do you do sir." Greets Yayoi with another bow. "I do and it's nice to see you again Miss Fujisawa. As for you Jinrai I believe you ALREADY know Mr. Robert Polowski, the new commander of the Odyssey II." says Mr. Wagner.

"Heh do I!? He's the guy who got me kicked out of that Astro-ball game that ended up costing the Stellvia that championship match." says Jinrai with a smirk. "Hey. It was YOU who collided with me Shirogane. You got yourself kicked out of that game. But no hard feelings still, is there?" says Robert with a smirk of his own. "Hey don't worry about it. That was a LONG time ago. The Stellvia II has won plenty of championships for the past 25 years under my leadership anyway, so it's all-good now." says Jinrai.

"Ok that's enough you too. I do believe we have more pressing matters to attend to." says Mr. Wagner with a smile. "Yes. Of course sir. Right this way." says Jinrai as he motions for them to follow him. The four plus a couple of guards head out of the docking bay and into the Stellvia II. Within a few minutes they arrive at the Stellvia II's meeting chambers. Everyone then sits down at the large table in the center of the room.

Several members of the Stellvia II command staff are there as well as many of the flight instructors, maintenance staff, representatives of the other foundations (stationed on Earth), and even a few high ranking officials from the Earth are present for this important meeting.

"Ok everyone I would like to call us to order now. Miss Fujisawa if you would please?" says Jinrai. "Yes sir." answers Yayoi. She then stands up holding a holo-chart in her arms and begins reading from it. "Greetings everyone. Now as you all know by now, almost a week ago, thanks to one of our prepatory students, a fleet wide shutdown was ordered due to the discovery of faulty or damaged parts in a lot of our small craft fleet. Parts from different sections of the crafts were affected. Ranging from propulsion, to navigation, to gravimetric control, to power distribution, all the way to life support systems were effected. After a massive investigation by literally hundreds of investigators, experts, and top officials, we can't come to a cause for how or why all these parts failed at the same time." explains Yayoi.

A short silence goes through the room as Yayoi finishes her report. "You mean to tell us after an extensive investigation costing millions we're no closer to figuring out what happened than we were when we started?" says one of the Akapusu II representatives. "That is correct." answers Yayoi. "But there just HAD to be a screw up somewhere! Parts don't just mass fail all on there own." says one of the El Santo II reps. "That's right! I smell something fishy going on here! There just had be something going wrong at those factories. I bet you it's Dr. Bale covering up flaws in his MK-II designs that he wants to keep hidden. It could be that there are real design flaws; just like what happened with Mr. Austin in that tragic test flight!" says the Akapusu II rep again.

"Now, Now calm down gentlemen. Let's not go and start making wild, unsubstantiated clams and theories and bring up past tragedies. We need to come up with a viable and realistic explanation using the information we have. Miss Fujisawa have there been any real credible theories on what could have happened?" asks Mr. Wagner. "Um….. No sir not really." answers Yayoi hesitantly. "You sound like you're not very sure of that." says Mr. Wagner. "Well one person has come up with a hypothesis, but it's not very realistic." answers Yayoi again.

"Well we would all like to hear it and who it was from." says Mr. Wagner. Yayoi looks a little off to the side a little hesitant to say the person's name, but she knows she can't disobey a direct order. "It's comes from our own Stellvia II lead investigator, Hudson Bale." says Yayoi. "You mean the prepatory student who found out about this problem and sparked this mass shut down?" says one of the Vision's representatives. "Yes sir." answers Yayoi. "Well tell us what he has to say." says Mr. Wagner.

"Well sir he says that after an extensive investigation the only conclusion he can come up with is mass sabotage." answers Yayoi. A short silence goes through the meeting room again. "He can't possibly be serious! That's just preposterous!" says the Akapusu II representative again. "I agree. All of our stations have already investigated that possibility but have all come to the same conclusion! It's impossible to get past all the security and sabotage that many spacecraft overnight and NOT have been seen. Either by another person or by all the security monitors we have. Not to mention that ALL small spacecraft, whether it be a student's or a teacher's craft, undergo a throe inspection before every launch. There's no way even a small part that was defective would not have been caught and replaced or repaired." says Mr. Polowski.

"Yes sir we know. We here too have dismissed that hypothesis." says Yayoi. "You say it was Hudson Bale? He's Dr. Bale's son isn't he? Sounds to me like he's doing the same thing his father is: tying to dismiss the faults of his father's designs onto some fictitious saboteur theory. Or maybe it was him and his father who set up this whole deal of 'mass accidents' He and his father probably paid some people on the stations to sabotage the MK-IIs just to get them more recognition." accuses the Akapusu representative sarcastically again. "Sir I thought I said not to start making wild accusations!" orders Mr. Wagner with a stern look. The Akapusu representative jerks back a bit. "Er. Sorry sir." he answers.

Mr. Wagner then turns to Jinrai and Yayoi. "Though I don't agree with the Akapusu representative's accusation, I do agree with him and Mr. Polowski that sabotage is not a viable reason. There are just too many factors for it not to work. I recommend that the investigation continue until a viable reason is found. Until then I believe that the all the damaged craft will be done being repaired tomorrow so I give permission for flight classes to start back up on Monday. But I will order extra security to monitor the hangers just in case. I am also ordering that Hudson Bale be taken off the investigation team, Though he has a lot of knowledge about the MK-II project and craft, he has a very personal investment in this investigation that may be clouding his judgment. I'm ordering a new head investigator to be put in charge to continue the investigation. Until then this meeting is now adjourned." says Mr. Wagner. Everyone then stands up, solutes, and are dismissed.

Later that evening, Hudson is in his room on his computer terminal checking up on the security protocols he's going to have to get past in the security room when there's a knock at his door. Hudson turns off his monitor, walks over to his door and opens it. There stands Yayoi. "Miss Fujisawa! Ma'am!" says Hudson as he stands a bit at attention. "At ease. Hudson I need a word with you." says Yayoi. "Yes Ma'am. Please come on in." says Hudson as he motions for her to come in. If you don't mind I'd rather stand here and tell you." says Yayoi. At that moment Hudson knows something is wrong. He looks on as Yayoi hesitates to tell him the bad news.

"Hudson…. I'm here to tell you that, as of this Monday, you have been ordered off the investigation team." says Yayoi. "WHAT!? Why!?" Hudson nearly screams. "Well for the most part no one in the meeting believed your saboteur theory. Most of them dismissed it right off. Even Admiral Wagner dismissed it." explains Yayoi. "But can't they see this is the only explanation for the mass failures?" protests Hudson. "Hudson even I'm having some trouble believing your explanation." says Yayoi. Hudson is taken back a bit. "Miss Fujisawa, out of all the people there I thought at least YOU would believe me." says Hudson. "I'm sorry Hudson. But even I can see that mass sabotage just isn't humanly possible." says Yayoi.

Hudson balls his fist in anger. "Well this still doesn't explain why I've been taken off the investigation team." protests Hudson again. "Well Admiral Wagner believes that you have too many personal issues to be in this investigation. He thinks someone who doesn't have any personal issues staked in this investigation will come up with a better conclusion." explains Yayoi. "But people's lives are at stake here! If we don't open an investigation about even the possibility of saboteurs then we're going to wined up with a tragedy on our hands!" yells Hudson again. "I'm sorry Hudson, but the Admiral's decision is final. You are not to investigate that matter any further. I suggest you obey his orders and not try and force the issue. You could wined up in more trouble than just yelling at a teacher. Now If you will excuse me I must get back to my duties." says Yayoi.

Yayoi turns away from Hudson's door and starts walking down the hallway. Hudson's door closes and she then hears a loud thump from his door. She's knows what he did. Inside his room Hudson has punched his door as hard as he could as soon as it closed. He has an intents angered look. "DAMNIT!!!!" he yells. "Those damn fools are going to wined up killing someone! They couldn't see a breached hull even if they were standing right in front of it about to be sucked out into space! Well I'll show them! I'll prove once and for all that there are saboteurs on board! I'll prove it tomorrow after I get those personnel files!" he says angrily again. Hudson then picks up his cell phone a shoots of a quick e-mail to the rest of the team telling them that's there's been a slight change in plans.

"So it comes all down tomorrow. Either I prove my theory, or people are going to get killed." he says to himself after he sends the e-mail. He then goes back to his computer to look over the procedures again.

End of Chapter 3

To be continued in Chapter 4: Deadly Consequences.

Author Note: Wow I know it's been a while But I'm finally back to the story. A little thing called college and life got in the way. I do apologize to my readers for taking well over a year to get this chapter up, but some things can't be helped. I thank my readers for being patient and I hope to never again make them wait this long ever again. Also you may have noticed that I fixed Iktou's name. I hadn't realized that until now I had been misspelling his name slightly with the t and the k switched. His name will be corrected from now on.

Story Note: Well things are starting to get interesting. What could Rita's plan be? What kind of information will Hudson and Rinna find. And can they prove that there are saboteurs on board before some get's hurt…. or worse? Be sure to read the next chapter to find out!


	5. Deadly Consequences

Disclaimer: I do not own Stellvia. Geneon (use to) and Xebec do.

**STELLVIA II: THE FINAL CRISIS**

**Chapter 4**

**Deadly Consequences**

It's early Sunday afternoon at about 1:20 p.m. The only day of the week where the students of the Stellvia II academy get a break from school work and hard training. So the Entertainment/Shopping district is busy with the bustle of students, teachers, and the occasional tourist walking around and buying assorted stuff. So no one pays attention to a young male prepatory student standing near the entrance to the district right by the Main Security Office. It may seem strange that the Main Security Office, or MSO as it's called, is right next to the Entertainment/Shopping district, but since most incidents of fighting or other ruckus usually happens in this district it just seemed obvious to put the security office close by for quick responses.

Hudson is standing near the Main Security Office dressed in blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a thin unbuttoned denim coat over it, when Rinna walks up to him. For a moment Rinna slightly blushes again as she sees how cool he looks just standing there in such rugged looking cloths. She quickly shakes it off. Hudson looks over and sees her coming. She's wearing a light green short sleeve shirt with tan pants. "Hey Rinna. You look a little worried. You sure you're up to this?" he asks. "NO! But if I have to, to help get to the bottom of all this I guess I'll have too." she replies.

Hudson then notices something. "Hey where's Rita?" he asks. "What she isn't here yet?" replies Rinna. "No. Wasn't she supposed to come with you?" asks Hudson. "She left about two hours before me saying she had something to do." says Rinna. "Now what in the world did she have to do that was so important as to brush off this little mission of ours?" says Hudson with some annoyance. "But I haven't brushed you guys off." comes a voice from behind them both. Both Rinna and Hudson whirl around in surprise at the voice. Before them both stands a beautiful young woman with long reddish-purple hair wearing sunglasses, a wide brimmed hat, tight fitting cut off at the knee blue jeans, a red tanktop, and a light blue unbuttoned light jacket that's pulled down halfway down her back.

For a few moments neither Hudson nor Rinna can tell who this beautiful woman is. "I'm sorry ma'am but I think you have us confused with someone else." says Hudson. "Guys! It's me!" says the beautiful woman as she lowers her head a little and pulls down her sunglasses. "Rita!? My God you look like a hot 22 year old." says Hudson with amazement. "He he he. Well that's the idea." says Rita with a giggle. "You mean this is what you've been doing for the past two hours!?" says Rinna with amazement also. "Well yeah. I had to get my hair done, get a facial, get my nails done, get my make-up on and select the proper cloths to make myself look six years older. My face is pretty recognizable so I had to make sure not just anyone could recognize me. And it seems to have worked." explains Rita.

Hudson just smirks and shakes his head a little. "So I take it that Ikuto and the others are waiting at the juice bar now?" he asks. "Yup. Joanne and Dianna are there also. They wanted in on this too." says Rita. "Can't blame them. Diana did have one of the sabotaged Bianca MK-IIs" says Hudson. "Guys enough talking. It's almost 1:30. If we're going to do this crazy mission we need to go now." says Rinna with annoyance. The group then looks around a bit to make sure noone is watching them, and then carefully sneak behind the security building.

The three finally reach the back of the security building near the back door. Hudson takes out his cell-phone with a cable and plugs it into the side of the locking keypad. After a few types a deciphering program he created starts running on his phone and revels the last code entered. He punches in the code and the door unlocks. "Ok Rita. Are you ready?" he asks. "Yes senior. I will do my best." says Rita with a bit of a Spanish accent. "Nice accent. Ok good luck." says Hudson as the door slides open.

Rita enters and the door slides shut behind her. She then takes out her cell-phone and brings up a very poorly drawn map. She takes a few steps to her right and peeks around the corner down a long poorly lit hallway. There about halfway down the hallway is a young looking security guard standing next to the only door with a keypad. "That's the security server room alright. Wow the guard is actually cuter than I though he'd be. Well here goes." says Rita in her mind. Rita takes a deep breath and reminds herself to speak with a Spanish accent. Then takes a step out into the hallway.

"Oh now where am I? Have I taken another wrong turn or something? This map is so confusing." says Rita with a confused Spanish accent. The guard, a little surprised to hear another voice, turns to look at the beautiful young woman walking down the hallway. Shaking off his male instincts he turns to speak to her. "Hey! Who are you?" he says with a bit of force behind his words. Rita jumps in "fake" surprise. "Y-yo?" (Spanish for "me") she says while pointing to herself. "Yes you! How'd you get in here?" says the guard with force again. "Eh? The door was unlocked so I came in." says Rita.

"Guh! The door was unlocked!?" says the guard as he takes a step back in shock. "Si." says Rita. "Ah hell. I must have forgotten to activate the relock. I'm in deep crap if my C.O. finds out. I'll have to deal with that later. More importantly why are you in here?" asks the guard. "I am lost." says Rita simply. "You're going to have to do better than that." says the guard. "Ohhhh." moans Rita and she slumps over conveniently exposing some of her cleavage. The young guard takes a small step backward as he sees her cleavage. "Just one more little push." thinks Rita.

"I am so tired. I have been walking around this zona ("area") for two hours trying to find this certain juice bar, but I have gotten myself so lost." says Rita as she fans herself with one hand and flaps the collar of her tank top with the other exposing A LOT more of her cleavage. *GULP* goes the guard. "Got you!" says Rita to herself. "Well… um…. maybe I can help you out." says the guard with a slight blush. "Really?" asks Rita. "Uh sure." says the guard. "So how did you become lost?" he asks.

"Well I am supposed to meet up with some of my amigos at a juice bar, but all I have to go by is this map that one of them sent me." says Rita as she shows the map on her cell-phone to the guard. The guard takes a quick look at it and instantly tells what's wrong. "Well no wonder you're so lost. This map is horribly done." says the guard. "Ohhhh! I am supposed to meet up with them in des minutes. If I don't find this bar soon they will think I skipped them. Do you think you can help me find it senior guard?" says Rita with semi-tearful eyes. "Uh well I'm not supposed to leave my post-" "PLEASE! I am afraid I will get lost again." says Rita interrupting the guard. The guard scratches the side of his cheek. "My C.O. will have my ass if he finds me gone, but that'll be nothing compared to if he finds out that I left the backdoor unlocked or finds me conversing with this hot chick." the guard thinks to himself. "Well Ok. I guess I can spare ten minutes at least." says the guard. "Oh gracias!" says Rita a bit excited.

Meanwhile outside the backdoor Hudson and Rinna are hiding behind some old metal crates when the door opens. Out comes the guard with Rita on his right arm. Just before they turn the corner to head out to the Entertainment district Rita puts her right hand behind her back and flashes her hand twice and then gives a thumbs up. "Good work Rita. She's bought us ten minutes. That's more than I thought she could get us." whispers Hudson. "Well you don't know Rita-chan. She can be VERY persuasive." comments Rinna. As Rita and the guard slip out of sight Rinna and Hudson slip over to the back door. Hudson punches in the code once again, the door opens, and they both sneak inside.

They both quickly sneak down the hallway to the door with the keypad. Hudson takes out his cell-phone again and plugs it into the keypad with the cable once again and starts typing. Rinna has a confused look on her face. "Hudson, why are you using a cable instead of a wireless connection? she asks. "The key pad will make a record of a wireless connection and leaves a record of whose phone made the wireless connection. Using a cable bypasses that scan. And the older programs that are used for cable connections, though are slower, are easier to get around since they are rarely used anymore. Right now I'm implementing a program which will make the security scans of this room run in an all clear loop. This way they won't detect us when we access the main security server." explains Hudson.

Within a few seconds Hudson's program is running. He then punches in the code and the door opens and they both slip inside. "Wow the room is smaller than I thought it would be." says Rinna. In the room are two terminals facing toward each other. "Ok you take the right one and I'll take the left." says Hudson. Both of them take their seats and begin typing on the terminals. Hudson takes out a computer from under his coat and plugs it into the main server. "Ok. There are nearly 3,000 personnel on board who wouldn't draw much attention while in the hanger bays, Maintenance, security, Command, and school staff. I'll take Maintenance and security, and you take Command and school staff. Just download all the files onto my computer and we'll look at it later. Now we have to do this quickly so first one done get treated to a drink by the other." says Hudson. "What? but-" "Better get started!" says Hudson interrupting Rinna as he begins typing.

For the next few minutes the room is filled with nothing but the sound of a jumbled symphony of buttons being rapidly pressed. Both Hudson and Rinna's fingers are flying over the buttons. They're homed skills helping them to quickly sort through the hundreds of files needed to be downloaded. "How you doing over there Rinna?" asks Hudson. "Just worry about your work ok. I'll be done in time." she answers. "I hope." she thinks.

Meanwhile Rita and the guard are making their way down the Entertainment district. "Now do you know the name of this juice bar?" asks the guard. "No. They just told me it was a juice bar with a pool table." says Rita. "Ah! I think I know which one you're talking about then." says the guard. "CRAP! I wasn't supposed to tell him that until our ten minutes were almost up!" Rita screams in her head. A couple of minutes pass when the guard speaks up. "Here we are ma'am." Rita looks up and sure enough it's the exact bar she was looking for, and there in the back are Ikuto, Joseph, Joanne and Dianna waving to her. "Gracias senior guard. Say how about I buy you a drink to thank you." she asks. "I'm sorry ma'am but I've got to get back. It was a pleasure helping you. You have a nice time on the Stellvia II." says the guard as he turns and starts walking away. Rita quickly runs over to the group and takes out her cell-phone. "Crap it's only been about seven minutes. I better send them an e-mail and fast." she says as she begins to type.

A minute later Rinna's cell-phone starts to vibrate. She takes it out and nearly cusses when she reads the e-mail. "Oh no! The guard's coming back already. We need to hurry." she says. "No kidding." says Hudson. They both turn back to their terminals and start typing again. As the minutes tick away the amount of files needed to be downloaded starts to dwindle. 200, 100, 50. "Done!" says Hudson. 15 seconds later. "Done…." says Rinna with a little annoyance. "You can buy me that drink later. Right now we need to move." says Hudson as he disconnects his computer and stuffs it back under his jacket.

Hudson and Rinna leave the server room and quickly make their way to the backdoor. But just as they are about to turn the corner they hear the door's keypad being typed on. "No! He's back already! Now what do we do!" whispers Rinna almost in a panic. Hudson grabs Rinna's hand. "This way!" he whispers back, and pulls her in a running dash down the hallway. As they once again pass the server room the back door opens. "We're not going to make it!" Rinna screams in her mind. Hudson rounds the corner at the end of the hallway and just manages to swing Rinna around it just as the guard turns the corner.

Hudson carefully peeks around the corner to look at the guard. He sees the guard with a big goofy smile on his face with a bit of a blush. Hudson turns back, leans against the wall, and let's out a sigh of relief. "Whew. He didn't see or hear us. He's too busy thinking about Rita." says Hudson. "Uh… Men… So how you suppose we get of out this mess?" asks Rinna. Hudson takes a quick look around. Beside them is an elevator that goes to the building's second and third floors and a staff bathroom next to it. Another door on the opposite wall leads strait to the front office that is FULL of guards.

Hudson can't see much in the poorly lit area but something on the floor next to the staff bathroom catches his eye. He bends over to get a closer look and then his eyes light up. "Bingo!" he whispers. "What?" asks Rinna. "It's the emergency fire escape slide! If I can get this open, this can be our way out!" whisper answers Hudson. "But won't that set off a fire alarm?" whispers Rinna with concern. Not if I deactivate it first." whispers Hudson back. Hudson then pulls up a small metal lid on the floor and underneath is a small control with a few buttons.

Hudson plugs in his cell-phone again and starts typing. "There. The alarm's been disabled." he whispers again as he puts his cell-phone back in his pocket. He then pushes a small red button on the control panel and immediately there is a small unlocking noise and then a small metal handle lifts out of the metal floor beside the control panel lid. Hudson grabs it and lifts it up slowly. The escape hatch opens up. "Ladies first." says Hudson. Rinna takes one look down the dark tunnel slide. "But it's pitch black down there!" she whispers. "Well try not to scream when doing down." whispers Hudson once again. He then gives her a shove and she falls in. Unfortunately Rinna let's out a yelp as she gets shoved.

To Hudson's dismay he hears two of the guards on the other side of the door. "Hey did you hear something?" "Yeah I think it came from the other side of the door there." he hears. Hudson then closes the small control panel lid. He then grabs a hold of a step handle in the fire escape and quickly lowers himself in. He grabs the hatch and closes it as quickly, but quietly as possible. It locks and he let's go just as one of the guards opens the door. He looks around bit but can't see anything. He peeks around the corner to the other guard down the hallway. "HEY! Did you hear anything back here?" he asks. The guard who was still thinking about Rita snaps back to reality. "Uh no sir I didn't." he answers. The other guard just scratches his head.

Meanwhile Rinna has been screaming as she goes sliding down the dark dusty tunnel. She then sees light ahead of her and knows she's about to reach the end. She suddenly feels herself go up an incline to slow her down and then shoots out of the tunnel. Unfortunately she lands in a grassy area on her butt. She slowly starts standing up. "Owwww. My butt." she says as she starts rubbing her left butt cheek. "HEADS UP!" Rinna turns around at the yell and sees Hudson come flying out of the tunnel. And he promptly crashes right into her and they both hit the ground with a thud.

It takes a few moments for them to clear their heads from the impact. They slowly start to open their eyes and then their eyes shoot open in shock as they notice that Hudson is laying on top of Rinna and their faces are mere inches apart. They stay frozen in shock for a few seconds, both blushing a deep red, when Rinna finally gathers her senses and shoves Hudson off. "Get off me you brute!" she nearly screams. "Ok Ok! Sheesh! Touchy aren't we!" Hudson says back as he stands up and begins brushing himself off. Rinna begins brushing herself off too. "Well we had better let the others know we made it out ok and that we'll be starting the investigation now." she says. She then pulls out her cell-phone and types out an e-mail to Rita.

An hour later Rinna and Hudson are in his room looking over the files they downloaded. "Well looks like it's all here. All we need to do now is start looking through them one by one to see if we can find anything out of the ordinary with anyone." says Hudson. Rinna took a few moments to glance around Hudson's room. It's a lot cleaner than she thought it would be. A simple bed, eating area, bathroom, a T.V. in the corner with a loafer chair in front of it, some manuals beside his bed, just an ordinary living quarters. "So you don't have a roommate? Don't you get lonely?" asks Rinna. "No. I find that I can think better when alone with no noisy roommate to bother me. I requested it and since the Stellvia II staff wanted me as a student they granted my request. Come on we had better get started." says Hudson. Rinna stands there for a moment. She knows he's lying. Just like herself being the child of a famous parent/parents and being incredibly smart tends to get you shunned by other people your age. And for a moment she pities him. "Yeah. Let's get started." she says.

Hours go by as Hudson and Rinna go through the files one by one. They manage to get through the Command Staff files with nothing jumping out as strange or out of the ordinary and have just finished the Security personnel files; again nothing jumping out as strange. They are now moving onto the Maintenance worker files. About another hour passes and Hudson looks up at Rinna and sees her head is bobbing up and down in a sleepy daze. He gives a small smirk and looks back at his computer… and then something catches his attention.

"Hey Rinna! Come take a look at this!" says Hudson loudly snapping Rinna out of her sleepy daze. Rinna rubs one of her eyes and walks over. "What is it?" she asks sleepily. "I think I may have found something. Take a look at these two guys' profiles." says Hudson. Rinna takes a close look. One man has dark brown hair and the other has blonde hair. "Wayne Anon and Peter Omus. Both from Chicago." she reads. "What about them? she asks. "Just look at their profiles. Wayne has been working on the Stellvia II for nearly ten years and Peter has been for nearly eight." says Hudson. "So what about it?" asks Rinna. "Well look at their disciplinary actions." says Hudson. Rinna looks at their profiles again.

"I don't see any." say Rinna. "That's the point! Tell me. Have you ever heard of someone working a tough demanding job like ship maintenance worker when he or she wasn't late or messed up on their job at least once?" says Hudson. Rinna's eyes open wide. "You're right! Come to think of it every file of a person that I've looked at that's worked here for more then two years has at least one notice or warning of being late or making a mistake. But however, it could be that these two are just very diligent about their work." adds Rinna. "True. But look at this. They've never taken a vacation day off and more importantly they've never taken a sick day either. Now don't tell me someone never gets sick for an entire decade or makes a mistake while being sick at work if they did come." says Hudson.

Rinna feels a chill run down her back. "The final clue that cemented by suspicions about these two are their last names. Just put them together and what do you get?" says Hudson. "Anon. Omus. Anonomus. *GASP* Anonymous!" nearly yells Rinna. Rinna feels her blood run cold. Hudson's theory of saboteurs being on board seems to be playing out. "Right. We need to show this to Dean Shirogane tomorrow after classes. Right now I think it's best if we go on to bed now. It's late and we do have classes tomorrow." says Hudson. "Wait how late is it?" asks Rinna.

Rinna takes out her cell-phone to look at the time. She then makes a weird face. "That's odd. I think my cell-phone clock is broken or something because it still says 1:30." she says. She then takes a closer look and her heart drops to her feet. "1:30 A.M?!" she nearly screams. Hudson looks at his clock. "Wow it's really that late." he says calmly. "This is no laughing matter Hudson! Lights out was 2 ½ hours ago! There's no way I can get back to my quarters now! Not with some of the teachers patrolling the hallways!" says Rinna in a panic.

"Just calm down Rinna. You can just sleep here for tonight." says Hudson calmly. Rinna recoils in near shock. "But I can't just go and sleep with some guy!" Rinna nearly shouts. "If you don't be quiet people are going to start wondering why there's a girl screaming in my room. Listen I'm not just some ordinary horny sixteen year old who would try and take advantage of this situation ok. I was brought up better than that. Besides you can take my bed for tonight. I'll just sleep in my loafer chair ok." says Hudson. Rinna is stunned for a moment. "You'd really let me have the bed?" she asks. "Yeah. Why not? And it would be a good idea for you to send a delayed e-mail to Rita asking her to bring you your uniform in the morning. You can pick your regular cloths up after school." adds Hudson.

Rinna is still stunned for a moment. "He's really not going to do anything." she says to herself. "Are you sure it's ok?" she asks carefully. "It's no problem really." says Hudson. "Well….ok. Let me just send the e-mail first." says Rinna. Rinna watches Hudson as she beings typing as he takes a blanket out of his dresser and goes over to the chair and sits down. She watches him for a moment longer before she snaps back. She finishes up the e-mail and sends it. She then goes over to the bed and lays down while covering herself with the sheets. Hudson pushes a button on the remote and the lamp goes out. For the next few moments Rinna just lays there a little worried but soon sleepiness starts to take hold again. Just before she falls asleep she can smell Hudson's pillow. "His pillow…. it smells…. just like him…nice." she thinks to herself. She finally falls asleep with a slight blush on her face.

*DING DONG!* Rinna hears something but her brain doesn't quite register it. *DING DONG! DING DONG! DING DONG!* this time she snaps out of her sleep. Unfortunately she loses her balance and falls right out of the bed with a thump. "Ohow!" she moans as she slowly stands up. *DING DONG!* Rinna finally realizes that someone is ringing the door bell. By this time Hudson has woken up also. Rinna walks over to the door rubbing the bump on her forehead now. She opens the door and there stands Rita with Rinna's uniform.

"Hellooooo Rinna-chan! I brought you your uniform!" says Rita with a musical tone. "Huh? Rita-chan? What time is it?" asks Rinna. "It's 7:30!" response Rita. "7:30!? Oh no class starts in thirty minutes!" panics Rinna. "Calm down Rinna-chan. We've still got time." says Rita. "You can change in my bathroom." says Hudson from behind Rinna. "Here you go! I also brought you a hair brush." says Rita. "Oh uh thanks! I'll be out in a few minutes." says Rinna as she rushes to Hudson's bathroom and shuts the door behind her. Hudson and Rita share a quick glance at each other. Rita gives Hudson a smug smile, and for perhaps the very first time in human history, Man knows what Woman is thinking. Hudson rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

After a few minutes Rinna comes out of the bathroom. "I'll come back to pick up my cloths later." says Rinna. "Ok." says Hudson. Rita takes a quick glance down the hallway. "Ok. Coast it clear." she says. Rinna is just about to leave the room when she suddenly turns around in the doorway. "Um Hudson…….um…. THANK YOU." she nearly yells as she bows, turns and runs off down the hallway after Rita. The door to Hudson's room then shuts. "So….?" asks Rita. "So what?" asks Rinna. "How was he?" asks Rita. "How was he at what?" asks Rinna. "You know." says Rita with a foxy grin.

Rinna stops in her tracks and starts to blush like a thermometer. "Oh so he was that good was he. Congratulations on your entering womanhood." says Rita with a bit of a sarcastic tone. "R-Rita-chan! We didn't anything like that!" says Rinna loudly still a bright red. "Ohhhh? You expect me to believe that?" says Rita with a suspicious tone. "YES I do!" says Rinna back harshly. Rinna then calms down a little. "He was actually nice to me. He let me have the bed while he slept in his chair. He acted like a gentleman." says Rinna with a more sincere blush. "So I guess he's 'Husband Material' now?" says Rita with a smirk. "Erk! R-R-Rita-chan!" yells a mad Rinna as she begins chasing Rita again. Rita just laughs as she begins running. Meanwhile in his room Hudson picks up his computer again to look at the faces of the two men he's singled out. "There's no way Mr. Shirogane won't be convinced when I show him this." he says to himself.

A few hours later the prepatory students learn that their flight class will start back up on Tuesday. So Hudson spends that time training in the zero G obstacle course room. He's done several runs each just over the record time with each run taking a few ticks of the time. He's about to finish his latest run in which he can tell he's about to at least tie that run. He begins to flip to land on his feet when all of a sudden the gravity comes back on and he gets slammed to the ground from about three feet up. "Ow! Damnit who turned the gravity back on!?" he yells. "I did!" comes a voice from the doorway. Hudson looks over and sees a VERY pissed off looking Leila with some of the other students with her, including Rinna and the others.

Hudson starts walking over to her. "What is it now?" he asks. "YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT THIS IS ABOUT!" she screams at him. "And that would be?" he asks. "Don't be coy with me! You broke into the security sever room sometime yesterday!" says Leila angrily. "What makes you think I did?" asks Hudson. "Don't act dumb! We found your little 'all clear loop' program this morning! And the only person brave, stupid, and the know-how to try it is you! You knew very well that you had been taken off the investigation. For this you're not just going to get expelled but you might even wined up getting arrested!" she screams at him again.

Hudson glances at Rinna who has a very worried and scared look on her face. He curses himself for forgetting to remove the loop program before they escaped the security building yesterday. "And don't try and deny that the program is yours! We're ready to search your room and computer files if need be to find out." says Ms. Leila harshly. Hudson sees Rinna make a very scared look on her face. He knows exactly what she's thinking. If they search his room they'll find her cloths and her computer there also, implicating her as a partner in this. Hudson can't let that happen.

Hudson lowers his head a little and let's out a sigh. "There's no need to do that. I did it. I managed to get the security files for everyone on board to start my own investigation because I know there has to be saboteurs on board." he responds. Rinna starts to raise her hand to tell Ms. Leila something, but then Hudson gives her a VERY harsh stare that makes her back off as if to say "Don't say a word!" Rinna can't believe it. Hudson's going to take the fall and all the blame just to protect her and the others from expulsion. "That saboteur crap again. Hudson how many times do we have to tell you that there can't be any on board. It's impossible." says Leila again.

"Well it doesn't matter now anyway. Hudson Bale I am to escort you to Mr. Shirogane's office immediately. Not even he can save you from this stunt you pulled." orders Leila. *sigh* "Fine." says Hudson reluctantly. He begins to slowly walk toward the door. "Hurry it up! The seniors are going to launch any minute now and I need to get to the monitoring room to help monitor them." orders Ms. Leila. Hudson stops dead in his tracks. "What did you just say?" he asks. "I said the seniors are about to launch!" yells Ms. Leila. "And don't worry your head off about it. The maintenance crews have been staying with the Katie MK-IIs all morning right up until the students got into there command pods. So there's no chance of them having problems this time." explains Leila.

"But what about the launching platforms?" asks Hudson with even more worry. "I believe they all had their regular maintenance on Saturday afternoon. They haven't been activated until this morning. But what's that got to do with your reporting to Mr. Shirogane?" she demands. Hudson's face goes pale. "Ms. Leila you've got the stop that launch NOW!" yells Hudson. "Why should I do that?" she asks sarcastically. "Because, since your brain seems to be too small to get the picture, if the saboteurs can't get to the craft they'll go after the next best thing to damage or destroy them. The launching platforms!" yells back Hudson with great anxiousness in his voice.

Leila puts her hand to her face. "Grrr! Hudson." she mumbles. "Listen you! How many-" Leila doesn't to finish her sentence when the group suddenly feels three distinct and hard vibrations run through the floor and walls. "What was that?" asks Ikuto. Just then the lights all go red and a loud alarm starts blaring. "Emergency! Emergency! All medical and Emergency retrieval units to Launch bay 22! I repeat! All medical and Emergency retrieval units to Launch bay 22!" comes a panicked female voice over the P.A. system. "Launch bay 22? That's the senior's launch bay!" says Leila. "Oh No!" Hudson says with dread.

Hudson then starts running as fast as he can to the launch bay followed by everyone else. It's only a couple of sections over so they get there pretty quickly. Hudson skids to a stop by the observation windows in the back of the bay. Everyone else comes in behind him. What they see shocks and horrifies them. There, floating in the launch bay, are the remains of three Katie MK-IIs; ripped to pieces when their launching platforms failed to release them when they went to full throttle for launching, and sending them crashing into the launching bay's floors. Two tan ones and one blue one. "Oh God one of the Big Four has crashed too!" says Joanne. Dianna can only cover her mouth with a gasp. Everyone knows what she's thinking. It could be Motoko.

What they see next horrifies them even more. Amongst the debris are two bodies. A boy and a girl. They can already tell that the boy is dead: impaled by some debris from his own ship right through the chest. The girl is also dead. Having no time to put on her helmet for the crash it was just mere seconds before the vacuum of space caused her lungs to implode. Noone can even look at her face. Her mouth wide open with her tongue sticking out and her eyes bulged out ready to pop it seems. It's too much for Joanne to take and she turns away to vomit.

Hudson then notices something. "HEY! The Big Four member is still in their command pod! They just may still be alive!" he yells. Dianna looks up and can see the command pod floating in the bay, but slowly drifting out of the hanger. "Damnit! If the pod has an air leak the person inside will be dead within minutes." Hudson says to himself. He turns around and looks at the wall and quickly spots what he's looking for. He runs over to the wall and presses a few buttons on a small control panel. A panel on the wall slides down to reveal a storage shelf. On the shelf are two emergency suits. Hudson grabs one of the helmets and puts it on while running to a nearby airlock.

"Hudson what are you're doing?" asks Joseph. There's a small whistle as the helmet seals to Hudson's flight suit. "I'm going to go help. If that pod gets too far out of the bay it'll take a lot longer to retrieve it. And every moment counts here." he says seriously. Hudson pushes a button and the airlock opens its inside door. He steps inside and the door closes. He pushes another button and the outside airlock door opens. Hudson floats out and grabs onto a hand rail. He pulls himself over to a large control panel. He types a few buttons and opens the communication channel to Stellvia II's control room.

"This is prepatory student Hudson Bale. I'm here in launch bay 22 on control panel 22B-7. I can already confirm that three Katie MK-IIs have crashed; one of them is a Big Four member. Two senior students are dead. However the Big Four member may still be alive in their command pod. But it's drifting out of the launch bay. I'm going to use the bay's cargo claw on the outside of the bay to retrieve the pod and guide it into airlock 22-C. Send some medical and emergency personnel there to retrieve them." Hudson orders. There is a short silence before there's a response. "Rodger Hudson. The other senior students have been ordered to stay away from the hanger. Please be careful." comes a female voice back. Hudson pushes a button on the panel that activates the large cargo claw on the outside of the bay.

Hudson grabs the two joysticks on the panel and begins moving them. The large four fingered claw on the outside of the bay begins to move also. Hudson watches on a screen showing the camera's view on the claw itself as he slowly starts to manipulate the claw into position just forward of the drifting pod's path. He turns the claw and slowly moves in to catch it. The pod drifts right into the middle of the claw and Hudson pushes a button on the right joystick causing the claw to close around it. Everyone in the observation area finally takes a breath. Hudson hasn't taken a breath and he's starting to sweat under the helmet. He slowly starts to bring the pod over to the large airlock.

As it gets closer he taps a few buttons and the large airlock's outside door opens. He carefully places the pod inside, sets it on the ground, and lets it go. He quickly pulls the claw out and the large door closes. Hudson let's out a big sigh making his helmet fog a little as he pushes the auto retract button for the claw. He looks over at the airlock widows on the far right side of the hanger bay as a group of medical and emergency personnel run over to the airlock and open its inner door. They run over to the pod and quickly cut it open. The medical personnel carefully pull out a blonde girl from the pod and load her onto a stretcher. There's some blood running down her face so he knows she took a pretty hard hit, but it looks like she's alive.

Hudson takes another breath but then gets a serious look on his face. He quickly floats back over to the small airlock and goes in. The door shuts, equalizes the air pressure and then opens the inside door. Hudson yanks off the helmet, runs over to a shocked Ms. Leila, and slams the helmet at her feet. The helmet's visor cracks open when he slams it and the helmet goes bouncing across the hallway. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! DAMNIT!" he screams at her with his finger in her face. "I kept telling you and the rest of the command staff that there were saboteurs onboard. BUT NONE OF YOU WOULD TAKE ME SERIOUSLY! AND NOW LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!" he screams again. "I tried and tried to prevent this from happening but every time I did you guys would get in the way!" he screams some more.

"Come on Hudson. Try and calm down a little" says Rita about to grab his arm. "QUIET!" snaps Hudson. Rita jumps back a little. Hudson turns back at Ms. Leila. "The deaths of those two students out there are on YOUR hands Ms. Leila. And you're going to have to live with that knowledge for the rest of your life! You had a chance to prevent this and you didn't do it." says Hudson angrily with a couple of tears rolling down his face. Leila's eyes open wide in shocked realization. Hudson then turns around and walks away with clinched fists. Rinna looks at Hudson for a second and then to Ms. Leila and then back to Hudson. "W-wait up Hudson." she hesitantly says. She and then the others go after him. Leila stands there for a moment in stunned disbelief. All she can do is lean back against a wall and slump down to her knees.

Meanwhile in the deep dark bawls of the Stellvia II, three men gather together. "So do you think they'll finally wise up?" says one man with dark brown hair. "I'd say they will. They are so slow at times it just seems ridiculous that we think of them as a threat to us." says another man with blonde hair. "Now don't be fooled by them. They're more resourceful than you think. You have to give them that. But there's no way they'll be able to stop what's coming at them next. We'll just stay a thorn in their side from time to time until our leaders give us new orders. For now though we'll stay out of site." says another man with black and red hair from the shadows.

End of chapter 4

To be continued in Chapter 5: After Effects.

Author Note: Well I'm slowly chugging away at this. Been without an internet connection for a while, otherwise I would have gotten this posted sooner. Also just wanted to let you know that when you see "MK-II" it's short for "Mark 2." It will help you read the story a little better.

Story Note: And so the plot thickens! So Rita truly is the hottest student on board. And Rinna's relationship with Hudson takes a couple of twists. How will Hudson be dwelt with now? He still broke into the security sever room but was just proven right about his saboteur theory. And just who are those mysterious men? You'll find out in the next chapter. See you next Chapter!


	6. After Effects

Disclaimer: I do not own Stellvia. Geneon (use to) and Xebec do.

**STELLVIA II: THE FINAL CRISIS**

**Chapter 5**

**After Effects**

It's late Thursday morning just after 11:00 am. Hudson Bale is standing at ridged attention in front of Mr. Shirogane's desk in his office. After the chaos that incurred with the crashes three days ago and till yesterday with the massive clean-up and repairs, Jinrai Shirogane couldn't find much time to see Hudson about the Security Server room break in, that is until today. Jinrai has his chair turned to the side parallel to his desk with his arms crossed, his eyes closed and a very stern look on his face. He lets Hudson stand there at attention for a few more seconds before turning his chair around and then looks up at him.

"You can relax now Hudson. I can assure you that you won't be arrested now." says Jinrai. "Y-Yes sir." says Hudson as he finally relaxes his tents muscles. "Normally if someone pulled this kind of stunt they would be facing some sever punishment both academically and militarily. Needless to say you will be facing some punishment later. However before we get on with that I want to know WHY you did it. What made you think of doing a stunt like this?" asks Jinrai. Hudson stands there for a couple of seconds before speaking up.

"Well sir I firmly believed that there were saboteurs on board. All the evidence was pointing away from mass malfunctions and so sabotage was the only other explanation. However none of the command staff nor any of the teachers would listen to my explanations. I tried to bring my findings to you in person but no one would give me permission. As such I felt I needed to take drastic measures to prove my findings. And the only way I was going to be able to do that was get the worker files and start my own investigation." explains Hudson.

"And was your investigation fruitful?" asks Jinrai. "Yes sir it was. I found two men from the maintenance crew with questionable records. It should be all in the report I had made that was sent to you via one of your command staff sir." explains Hudson. "Indeed they were." says Jinrai. "I had security look into these two men and they discovered that they had worked on two of the three launching platforms that failed. They had made it look like the platforms had malfunctioned but upon closer inspection security discovered that the launching platforms were purposely jammed in the lock position. An obvious sign of sabotage. Afterwards I had security investigate their records. They were forged incredibly well. Everything about their records seems legit. It wasn't until the rest of the maintenance crew members were interviewed when it was discovered that they had only been here five months. No one remembers seeing them beyond that time." explains Jinrai.

"But there's a couple of odd things." he adds. "Sir?" asks Hudson. "Their records for one thing. They were so well made that even the security experts couldn't tell them apart from the real ones. It's as if they had hacked into the employment mainframe and created their own fake records." says Jinrai. Hudson thinks for a moment. Hacking the security mainframe of Stellvia II was one thing. But hacking the employment mainframe which covers all of Earth all the space stations, the Foundations, colonies, and other various ships in the fleet would be too much of a feat to pull off. Even with his skills it would be darn near impossible. This could mean only one thing.

"Sir. Do you think it was an inside job?" asks Hudson. "It's a possibility, but that's the oddest thing about this. There's no record of their files being put into the employment mainframe. It could have been erased or someone may have found a way to make counterfeit employment records so perfect that no one can tell. Even the computers. And that could be a very big problem for us." explains Jinrai. Hudson knows exactly what he means. If someone has been able to find a way to make perfect counterfeit employment records, or been able to input fake records without leaving any kind of trail, then there could be even more people out there with fake records working amongst the regular crews just waiting to strike. Question is, who did it and how?

"Sir. What is the other odd thing?" asks Hudson. "It's very weird. There seems to be no record at all of these men before five months ago. We first cheeked the Chicago person's database and there was no record of their faces any where. We then moved out to the North American Continent database, then the entire Earth. And we still got nothing. We've cheeked all the stations and moon colonies, the Martian colonies, and the Jupiter colonies. No one seems to have a record of these men's faces." explains Jinrai. "Do you think they've been surgically altered?" asks Hudson. "Mmm… It's a possibility, but that's another dead end it seems. Even the most advanced facial recognition programs out there can't tell if these men had surgery or not, nor what their faces could have looked like if they had. It's as if they had materialized out of nowhere and began working here." says Jinrai.

Hudson is disturbed of what he's just been told. Someone has either gone to very great lengths to get these two men onto the Stellvia II or there's a conspiracy going on. Either prospect isn't good. "Well for now we'll continue to investigate. You've been given permission to continue your investigation as well Hudson. For now though there is still the matter of your security server room break in and hacking." says Jinrai with a stern voice. Hudson immediately stands back at attention.

"Hudson Bale. Breaking into an off limits security building, hacking into a Foundation class security server, and illegally copying personal records, normally you would get expelled from this school and more than likely you would be arrested and face prison time. However you will receive only two days suspension. With time served for helping with the clean up and repairs." says Jinrai surprisingly. "S-Sir?" says Hudson with amazement. "You got lucky this time Hudson. Your saboteur conclusion was correct. You did everything you could to try and save people's lives. But we of the command staff were too stubborn to listen to you. The deaths of those two students are on our hands. Because of this your disciplinary actions have been reduced. You should be thankful. HOWEVER I do NOT want you to pull another stunt like this ever again. Do I make myself clear?" orders Jinrai.

"YES SIR!" responds Hudson. "Good. The others that were involved in this ploy have received the same punishment." Jinrai stays silent for a couple of seconds before speaking back up. "Personally I'm actually proud of you Hudson. You went above and beyond to try and prevent the loss of life. Even to go as far as risk your own future to do so. Had the roles been switched I probably would have done the same thing. It's that kind of determination and thinking I like to see in a cadet and future solider. It shows great leadership and the ability to think outside the box. With that said, I am proud to have you as a student here." finishes Jinrai. "T-Thank you sir." answers Hudson. "Dismissed." says Jinrai.

Hudson bows and turns to leave the room. Just as he reaches the door- "Oh by the way Hudson." says Jinrai. Hudson turns back. "Sir?" "You know the security server takes two people just to access it. It's amazing that you were able to even access it all alone. Your hacking ability would have to be double that of anyone else. I have trouble believing you did it all by yourself." says Jinrai with a smirk as if he knows something. Hudson senses and realizes that Jinrai suspects he had an accomplice in the hacking and probably knows who it was. "Well sir, you should never underestimate your students." Hudson responds. With that Hudson leaves Jinrai's office.

When the door slides shut behind him Hudson let's out a small sigh and then precedes to go back to his room. It only takes a few minutes for Hudson to reach the dormitory and his room. He quickly enters his room and locks the door behind him after it slides shut. Hudson stands there for a few seconds before he leans back against the door and slides down and sits on the floor. His arms draped over his knees and his head against the door. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. It's been a grueling three days.

After saving one of the Big Four's lives, Hudson had to help take part in the clean up, and then was subject to several hours of interviews and debriefings. And adding in all the stress of what his fate was going to be with the security server room break in, have all taken its toll. He's beat. The one thing he would like to do right now is lie down in his bed and sleep for 20 hours. Thinking about his bed makes him think about when Rinna slept in it. How she looked so cute when asleep.

He shakes the thought from his head and stands up. He stretches out his arms and then takes one step towards his bed when *DING DONG!* someone rings his door bell. Hudson scratches the back of his head. "Now who could that be?" he asks himself a little annoyed. He unlocks his door and it slides open. To his shock he sees Rinna standing there with a slight blush and Rita right behind her. "R-Rinna. Rita. What are you two doing here?" asks Hudson. "Well um…" begins Rinna. But she stops part way through her sentence and looks slightly away. Rita then speaks up. "Hi Hudson! May we come in?" she asks with some enthusiasm.

"Oh… uhh… umm… S-Sure. Come on in." stutters Hudson as he motions for the two girls to enter. Hudson pushes a button on the small panel beside the door and the lights turn on in his room. As the girls enter Hudson speaks back up again. "I'm sorry but I don't have any tea to fix at the moment." he says. "Oh that's ok. We're not going to be here for very long." says Rita. "Did you leave something here from last time Rinna?" asks Hudson. "Oh uh… no. I came here to…" her voice gets real quiet and she looks away and blushes again.

Rita elbows Rinna a little and whispers to her. "Come on. You can say it." she says. Rinna looks back at Hudson and then takes a deep breath. "It's not easy for me to say this but…I want to… thank you for the other day…" says Rinna calmly. "Thank me?" asks Hudson with some surprise. "Y-Yes. I want to thank you for not implicating me as an accomplice. Everyone else got some kind of punishment for it except me. Rita-chan told me that you told them not to tell the teachers about me. And I want to thank you for it." says Rinna as she bows.

"No problem. I knew that one of us needed to be clear to continue the investigation." says Hudson. "But I just wanted to ask you… Why did you do it? Why did you risk your own career and future just to protect me?" asks Rinna. "Well because I didn't want you to have your career ruined either. I mean think about what the tabloids would say. 'Famed Heroes' daughter arrested for breaking and entering.' Not only would you have been arrested but you would have ruined you family's reputation as well." explains Hudson.

Rinna lowers her head. This wasn't exactly the response she was expecting. "But the main reason is… Is because you're a friend. I couldn't let you take the fall with me. You're too important to me and everyone else. We had to do it." Hudson adds. Rinna can feel her cheeks warm as she blushes again. His eyes had gone soft again, the softest she's seen them go yet, so she knows he meant every word. As Rinna blushes Rita slips up beside the two with a cat like smile.

"Hmmmmmmmmm!" she hums with glee. Instantly Rinna snap back. "R-Rita-chan!" she yelps in surprise. "Hmmmmm me thinks you like him!" says Rita with a sly tone. Rinna blushes as bright as a cherry. "RITA-CHAN CUT IT OUT!!!!" Rinna yells out loud. "Don't say such weird things like that! Especially in front of Hudson!" orders Rinna more. "Heh heh. But you don't hate him anymore now do ya?" says Rita with a wink. Again Rinna is taken-a-back by Rita's comment. This time not as much in an embarrassed way though. Rinna stays quiet for a few seconds. She glances back at Hudson and then looks back down at the floor.

"Yeah… you're right. I don't hate him anymore." says Rinna softly as she gives a small grin. "I've discovered he's actually a kind hearted and loyal young man." she adds as she looks back at Hudson. This time it's Hudson's turn to slightly blush. Rinna then looks back at Rita with a stern look and points her finger in Rita's face. "But don't get the wrong idea! OK! We are just friends! Nothing more! I don't like him in THAT way." says Rinna forcefully. Rita just shrugs. "Whatever you say." she says in a carefree way. "Riiittaaa-chhhaaannnn!" says Rinna with a growl in her voice. "Oh-who! Scary!" says Rita again with a bit of fake fright.

Hudson gives a smile and forced laugh at the antics of the two girls when suddenly *DING DONG!* his doorbell rings again. "Wow sure is busy today, who could it be now?" he asks. He walks over to his door, pushes a button on the small control panel and his door slides open. Hudson receives a shock when he sees a young blond haired young man standing in his doorway. He instantly recognized the young man. "M-M-Michel Austin!" Hudson says with surprise. Rinna and Rita peek from around the corner of Hudson's bar. "Whoa! What's one of the Big Four doing here?" asks Rita with surprise.

"Hudson Bale right?" asks Michel calmly. "Y-Yes." answers Hudson. "Ah. Well then it's a pleasure to meet you." says Michel as he extends his hand. "Oh uh. L-Likewise." says Hudson as he takes Michel's hand and shakes it. "To what do I owe the honor of your visit?" asks Hudson. "Well I've come to thank you for the other day. I heard it was you who saved one of my fellow Big Four members." says Michel. "Well. Yes. But I just happened to be there at the right time. I did what anyone else would have done. Really it was nothing." says Hudson. "Indeed. But that doesn't change the fact that you were the one there to save her life. And you have my deepest thanks." says Michel with a smile. Hudson scratches the back of his head with some embarrassment.

"Now I was wondering if you could come with me for a few minutes. There are a few other people who would like to thank you also." says Michel. "W-Who?" asks Hudson. "You'll see. The girls can come along too." says Michel. Hudson stands there for a few seconds wondering who else would want to see him. "Ok I guess. May I ask where we'll be going?" asks Hudson. "You'll see." says Michel with a grin. Hudson looks back at the girls. Both have curious looks on their faces also. "We'll come too!" says Rita with a grin of her own. "Well alright. Lead the way Michel." says Hudson. With that Hudson and the girls follow Michel.

After a few minutes of following Michel, it doesn't take long before Hudson and the girls know where he's taking them. They realize he's taking them to the infirmary. Once in the infirmary Michel takes them to a room in the back with the door closed. He lightly knocks on the door. "Come in!" comes a girl's voice from the other side. Michel opens the door and walks in with Hudson and the girls in tow. "Hey! I brought him like you asked." says Michel with a smile. Hudson and the girls see a long blonde haired young girl in a hospital bed with a cast on her left arm and some bandages wrapped around her head. Along beside her are a purple haired girl and a light blue-green haired young man wearing a mouth bandana.

"Thank you Michel. I appreciate it." says the blond haired girl. Michel turns towards Hudson's group. "Guys. May I introduce you to Karl Shoujin…" says Michel as he gestures towards the light blue-green haired young man leaning against the wall. Karl calmly raises his hand to the group. "… Miss Motoko Machida…." Motoko waves with a smile. "… And Miss-" "SUSIE!!!" yells Rita interrupting Michel. Rita starts running to the blond haired girl. "Rita-chan? Is that you!?" says the blonde haired girl, who's name seems to be Susie, with surprise. Rita runs up and gives the girl a great big hug; which the girl returns with her one good arm.

"It's so good to see you! It's been a while!" says Rita. "Yes it has! But why haven't you come to see me since you came on board?" asks Susie. "Well you know. I've been busy. You know with school and the sabotage thing. Also the seniors' schedules are different from the prepitory students' so it's been hard to find any time to come and see you." says Rita. "Well that's true enough. I tried a couple times myself." says Susie. "So you were the one that Hudson saved. How are you feeling?" asks Rita. "Yeah. I got a bit banged up. A concussion and cut on the head. I broke my left arm when I impacted the front of my command pod, and bruised a few ribs when my harness broke and I grazed my control panel. Doctor says I'll be ok and will be able to leave in about a week though. But I won't be able to fly for a couple more weeks so I can heal." says Susie.

*Ahem!* coughs Michel. The two girls stop their yapping when they realize they just left everyone behind in their conversation. "Oh uh, sorry Michel. Guess I got carried away." says Susie. "Well as I was saying..." as he looks back at Hudson and Rinna. "This is Susie Hunter, our newest member of the Big Four. And Susie, this is Hudson Bale, the young man who saved your life." completes Michel as he gestures toward Hudson. Hudson takes a couple of steps forward. He notices Susie look a little apprehensive and stops. Rita notices too. "You don't have to be afraid of him Susie. I know he looks a bit scary at first, but he's actually a pretty nice guy once you get to know him." says Rita.

"Oh. Sorry. I did it again didn't I?" says Susie to Rita. "Scary?" Hudson thinks to himself. "Heh heh. I thought he looked a bit scary also when I first met him." says Rinna to herself. "I'm sorry Hudson Bale. Um…. It's nice to meet you. Thank you for saving my life the other day." says Susie as she extends her hand out. Hudson takes a step forward and takes her hand and shakes it. "No problem. It was nothing. I mean I only did what anyone else would have done then." says Hudson humbly so not to appear threatening. Susie gives a soft smile. "I mean it. I really thought I was going to die. I blacked out and woke up later in the infirmary. It wasn't until later that I was told who saved my life and how….. Thank you." says Susie with an even kinder sincere smile.

Hudson scratches the back of his head again. He's feeling a little overwhelmed with all the thank yous he's getting. All he can do is smile back kindly. Susie then looks over and sees Rinna behind Hudson. "Oh! Is this your girlfriend?" she asks. "Girlfriend?" asks Hudson. He turns and only sees Rinna behind him. Both he and Rinna blush. "Oh No! No! No! She's not my girlfriend!" Hudson blurts out in a bit of a panic. "That's right! He's just my classmate and friend! We have no relationship going what so ever!" blurts out Rinna with the same amount of panic in her voice. Susie blinks her eyes in surprise at their reactions. "Oh I'm terribly sorry. It's just you two look like you'd make a cute couple." says Susie with another smile. Hudson and Rinna blush even further.

"Come on Susie, that's enough picking on them." says Rita with a slight giggle. "Ok. Ok." says Susie with a smile. Rinna finally snaps out of her embarrassment. "Oh. Uh. Rita-chan, you know Susie?" she asks. "Yeah! Me and Susie have been friends for a long time! My mother and her mother are both colleagues and friends. So we got to play with each other a lot onboard the Ultima II. We would play against each other on the simulators a lot. And each time we would try and out do the other, though she would almost always win since she is two years older than I am. You could say we helped each other get as good as we are today! That was until two years ago when she left the Ultima II to enroll in the Stellvia II Academy." describes Rita with a big smile. "And don't forget those four years you spent on Earth." adds Susie. "Yeah that too." says Rita with another giggle.

Michel then claps his hands to get everyone's attention. He looks at the other three Big Four members and they all nod their heads. "Well now that all the introductions and thank yous are over with, we have a surprise for you Hudson." he says. "A surprise?" asks Hudson. "You're customization classes are coming up in a few weeks right? asks Michel. "Uh Yeah." answers Hudson. Michel then walks over and shakes Hudson's right hand. "Well better make it good because, congratulations Hudson Bale, for showing bravery and skill above all others the other day when you saved Susie, we've decided to choose you to be one of the three Bianca MK-II players for our Astro Bowl team in this year's mini Olympics in a couple of months." says Michel.

Hudson, Rita, and Rinna all stand there in silence for a second. Hudson has a bit of a shocked look on his face the most. "R-Really?" he says in surprise. "Yup. But the truth is that we were more than likely going to choose you anyway because we heard how good of a pilot you were on Earth and how you piloted your crippled Bianca MK-II back into its hanger. No easy feat to do with a broken Y yaw axis stabilizer. But saving Susie put you over the top. Welcome to the team Hudson." says Michel. Hudson is still a bit surprised. "I'm sure you'll do your best." says Motoko. "We're counting on you." adds Karl. "T-Thank you." Hudson finally says weakly.

Rita pumps her fist into the air. "Yeah! Congratulations Hudson! You're going to be in this year's Astro Bowl! I can't wait to see you play!" she yells in excitement. Hudson gives a hesitant smile. "Y-Yeah. Should be… fun." he says. Rita notices something in Hudson's response. Something sad in his eyes. "That's the spirit Hudson. Be sure to customize you Bianca MK-II and get in a lot of practice from now until then. This year we'll be able to get revenge on the Odyssey II team for beating us last year. I can feel it!" says Michel. "Yeah it was embarrassing last year. I remember watching the game on the Ultima II with last year's Big Four. One of the members crashed into one of the obstacle beacons and was thrown out in the final game. The others just couldn't keep up with one missing man and lost, what was it? 5 to 1?" asks Rita. "Actually it was 6 to 1." says Susie. "Oh yeah." adds Rita.

"We'll that should all change with Hudson on board. And when we select our final two Bianca MK-II pilots nothing should be able to stop us." says Motoko. Hudson gives a forced smile. Suddenly there's a knock at the door. "Come in!" says Susie. The door to the room slides open and in walks an older looking redheaded nurse and a younger green haired nurse. "Hello again Miss Hunter. It's time to switch out your medication." says the older nurse. "Ok. Thank you Mrs. Shirogane." says Susie. "Leeann would you mind helping me with the bed?" says Mrs. Shirogane. "Yes mother." says the younger nurse.

"Mother?" says Rinna curiously. Hudson leans over towards Rinna. "Yes mother. You see the older nurse there is Jinrai Shirogane's wife Ren. And the younger nurse is his oldest daughter Leeann." says Hudson. "Wow. I didn't know the dean was married and had children." says Rinna. Hudson then turns to Michel. "We'll if that's all you'll be needing; I need to get back now. If that's ok with you all." says Hudson. "Sure go ahead. And remember. We're all counting on you Hudson." says Michel. "Ok Susie. I'll see you later! Get well soon!" says Rita with a smile. "Thanks! You too." says Susie as she waves goodbye. Hudson and the two girls bow and leave the room.

As they begin to walk down the hallway leading out of the infirmary Rinna goes to speak something. "Um.." "So Rita. May I ask you something?" asks Hudson interrupting Rinna. Rinna backs off a little. "Sure." says Rita. "Um… I noticed Susie looked… scared of me. Well more like wary of me. I was wondering…" says Hudson. "Why she acted like that." Rita finishes Hudson's question. "Yeah I'm sorry about that. But… she has a slight distrust in men." says Rita as she looks away sadly. "She distrusts men?" says Rinna. "Yeah. She's had it since she was very little. You see her father and mother were from the same town on Earth and they both moved to the Ultima II for jobs and for each other. Her father had told her mother that he wanted to love her always, but he didn't want to settle down just yet." says Rita.

"Oh no. I think I see where this is going." says Hudson. "Her mother was fine with that. She was willing to let their relationship grow bit by bit until he was ready. But then one day she found out she was pregnant. She told him that she was pregnant and for the good of the baby that it would be a good time to get married. But that night after she had told him…. he left in the middle of the night for Earth and never came back. She was heart broken. Later in her pregnancy she got a message from her sister on Earth that he had moved back to their home town. Her sister asked him why he didn't stay with her for the baby…." Rita stops for a second a little hesitant to continue the story.

"Her father then said that he had no intention of ever going back to that whore. He only kept her around for his own pleasure. He said that he didn't want anything to do with that fetus. This news devastated Susie's mother. She never heard from him nor received any word about him ever again. Susie's mother decided to have the child anyway. She had her and raised her all alone, though my mother was there to help since they were friends. But Susie's mother never forgot about what her father had done. She taught Susie from a very young age to be careful around men. They could whined up breaking her heart. Unfortunately Susie took this to heart and has had a distrust in men ever since." explains Rita.

"How disgusting. I can't believe that in this day and age there are men still like that." says Hudson. "Yeah. Men like that should never be in relationships." says Rinna. "But you know my mother liked taking care of Susie so much when she was a baby that she and my dad decided to have one. That ended up being me." says Rita. "So I guess you could say that Susie was your 'Big sister' in a way right?" says Hudson. "Yeah. I guess I do think of her as one sometimes." says Rita.

"By the way Hudson. What would you have done?" asks Rita. "Huh?" asks Hudson. "What would you have done if you suddenly found out that your girlfriend had become pregnant with your child?" asks Rita. "That's easy. I would have stuck around to care for her and the baby. Unlike that spineless wimp, I want to have a family someday. I want to have a wife and children." says Hudson. Rinna smiles a bit. She thinks it's sweet that he wants a family.

She's thought about having one when she's older too. Suddenly an image pops into her head. It's of her holding a new born baby while Hudson is playing with two young children. THEIR CHILDREN. A boy and a girl. Rinna suddenly realizes where her brain is going. "WHAT THE $&% AM I THINKING!!!!?????" she screams in her head as she turns a bright red. Thankfully she's a bit behind the other two so neither one sees her blush.

"But you know. Susie has been working hard to get over her distrust. She realized in middle school that not all boys and men are distrusting. But even then her habit and being raised to be wary of men still affected her. It wasn't until she got here at the Academy and met Michel that she finally stared making progress." says Rita. "You mean Susie and Michel are a couple?" asks Hudson. "Well… no. Not exactly. Even though Michel has made tried a couple of times to become a couple with her she still isn't ready to do so yet. But they are very close… more so than friends. So I suspect that one day they will be." says Rita. "Hmm. Brave man that Michel." says Hudson.

"Yeah he is. But I think you've helped too Hudson. You going out of your way to save her life did a lot I can tell. When she learned that a man went out of his way to save her really shocked her. You may have well done more for her by doing that than anyone else has." says Rita with a smile. "You think so?" asks Hudson. "Yeah! She agreeing with the other Big Four to chose you to be apart of their Astro Bowl team is proof enough! I can't want to see you play!" says Rita with another smile. Hudson turns away slightly and has a slightly sadden look on his face. "Y… Yeah. Should be quite a show." he says calmly.

"L-Listen I've got something to do back at my place so I'm going to go on ahead." says Hudson. He doesn't give the girls time to respond before he begins to jog away. "Ah! Hudson!" says Rita as she extends her hand out. Be he doesn't stop nor look back. "What's wrong with him?" asks Rita. Rinna can sense it too. Something's wrong with Hudson and she wonders what it could be.

End of Chapter 5

To be continued in Chapter 6: Apprehension.

Author Note: Well this one took a while to think out. I actually had several moments of writer's block during this chapter. But I managed to get through it. A dialogue heavy chapter can be quite difficult to get though, I'm sure most of you other authors out there have this same problem. That said I'll be doing the 2nd Chapter of my Lucky Star fanfic next. I hope you all look forward to it.

Story note: Slow chapter yes, but you can be assured that the next chapter will be more exciting and dramatic! Flight classes will be back in session along with the customization of their crafts. And with the mini Olympics fast approaching will everyone be ready in time?! But what is up with Hudson's odd reactions? Will Rinna be able to find out and help him? Or is the Stellvia II's chances doomed once again? Be sure to stick around to find out! SEE YOU NEXT CHAPTER!


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